Poil : short over the whole body, very short on the head and lower limbs, tawny with charcoal, red-brown.

Size : 62 cm for the male, 58 cm for the female.

Weight : 28 to 35 kg for the male, 27 to 32 kg for the female.

Of the Belgian shepherd dogs, the Malinois has the strongest character. More nervous, more sensitive, it is also more difficult to train. To harden such a sensitive character, we must consider an education guided by firmness and gentleness. The goal is to get him used to being around the world and noise at a young age, so that he behaves without surprise.

The Malinois is a dog hyper-affectionate. Alongside his master, with whom he forges an almost fusional relationship, he can be a dog who enjoys life in the family house intensely, where his calm indoors contrasts with his enthusiasm outdoors. As susceptible and impulsive as they are, the Malinois can prove to be a child’s best companion, and their best advocate, even when they have grown up.

When we ask him to work (avalanche dogs, police, gendarmerie, GIGN), we must remember that we have a precision instrument to use with great care because he does not forget easily and reacts a lot. faster than any other breed of dog. It is a dog much more vivacious than the other shepherds in its responses to external stimuli. Very active, he is constantly on guard.

Due to his special character, the Belgian Shepherd tends to turn around his master, as he did with the flocks.

Incomparable jumper, capable of covering colossal distances and endowed with a striking musculature, the Malinois is a dog at the same time lively, supple and powerful. He is the most used Belgian sheepdog in disciplines involving biting. It does not bite as hard as other sheepdogs, but does so faster and with more ease.

In addition to his innate ability to guard herds, the Malinois has all the qualities of a good house guard dog and a tenacious and courageous defender of his master. He is vigilant, attentive and endowed with great learning abilities. His masters quickly found him indefatigable: of all the breeds of dogs, it was the Malinois who most preserved the primitive trot that wolves and wild dogs have in the wild. 

Malinois is one of the four varieties of Belgian shepherds conceived in Belgium at the end of the XNUMXth century. The other three varieties are Tervuren, Laekenois and Groenendael. It takes its name from the town of Mâlines, in Belgium, where its breeding began.

The Malinois has genetic predispositions toepilepsy : the prevalence would reach nearly 10% in the breed.

Certain DNA sequences repeated in a particular gene (SLC6A3) are over-represented in the breed, a phenomenon associated with abnormal behaviors due to stress. This can result in hyper-vigilance vis-à-vis environmental stimuli.

It requires little maintenance.

Average life expectancy : 12 years.