Flyball Malinois- miniature?

[Dainerra]

you can post this in the breeders section Kbuhasan.


To the original question, I've met several mals in agility and obedience trials (and a few at conformation). Only 1 of them was anywhere near the size of a GSD. The rest were TINY - the males would probably top out in the low to mid 50s.

[JakodaCD OA]

willy, my trainer Bonnie who captain of Ruff Enuff flyball team, that won in the 2012 that I believe you went to?

She has two small mals, they are fast little demons She got them specifically for flyball, from a breeder in Canada I believe, who is breeding smaller mals .. Not sure of the kennel name I could always ask her.

Will be moving the thread above that needs it's own topic

[Caja's Mom]

Aaron, Kelly Robbins and Brittany have been doing some breeding with the LDS dogs. Vixen is awesome and I have seen her quite a bit. Brittany and Rocket Relay are just over the border from us. Most of the LDS dogs have come into flyball because they have washed out from FR, IPO, etc. Thinking that there is going to be a litter on the ground soon.

[wildo]

Trish- do you know if these dogs are hard to live with? Do they have the capability to settle- or at the very least, can you train them to settle?

[Liesje]

Uh, the Mals I compete against are HUGE!!! The Dutchies too. Well there's one lady that has a gorgeous young Mal that looks normal size and a guy that has a nice young Dutchie. There is a huge Mali that runs like 3.8-4.0, his stride is amazing.

[Nickyb]

Why hello there, see ya'll on the topic about Malinois
Firstly Mali's ARE indeed smaller then your standard GSD, my female WGSD weighed in at 80-85lbs where as Zoey weighs in at 60lbs. They aren't a tiny breed by any means and no, there's not a miniature version of them. There are breeders out there that breed them smaller but it is still standard, a typical Malinois ranges between 45-75 lbs, of course females being on the lower end of the spectrum. I'll try to get some pictures of my neighbors PB Mali's but his older boy weighed in at 90 lbs!

Wildo, I see you your looking into one? What exactly do you want out of a malinois? Although they aren't the size of a gsd, they make up for it with there insane intensity. These dogs are meant to work, simple as that, and you need to be dedicated!
Example, I jog Zoey every morning before work 1/2 hour and play so intense fetch with her 1/2 hour (10 tennis balls constantly going back and forth, you should see my yard, errrr dirt field now!) When I get home I bump everything up to an hour, now if its pouring out, I'm stuck with a dog with energy that you can't quite manage.
I love Zoey, she's an awesome dog and every Mali I know is the same, they just require more work and up until its time for them to cross the bridge, their brain wants them to go go go go go.

What do you mean by settle?

[Freestep]

Most of the Mals I have seen are smaller than GSD. Around 50ish pounds.

There are some people crossbreeding Malinois with Border Terriers for the "ultimate flyball" dog, so perhaps some of the really small Mals are actually crosses.

Warning: rant ahead.




I know some folks will disagree, but I think it's insanely unethical to crossbreed dogs for the purpose of Flyball. Like there aren't enough driven, energetic, athletic mixed breeds in shelters that wouldn't excel at it? Isn't that pretty much what Flyball was created FOR? So many pet owners give up their dogs *because* they can't handle that crazy drive... at least in my local shelter, I could walk up and down and point out half a dozen dogs that would LOVE to be adopted to a Flyball enthusiast.

But human beings are vain, and some want to WIN above all else, to the point that they totally lose perspective. It happens in every sport, but for things like Agility and Flyball that were created just so that mixed-breed, shelter dogs had a sport to participate in... IMO it's incredibly short-sighted and selfish to bring new mutt litters into the world when there are already too many mutt litters.

/rant

[wildo]

Originally Posted by Freestep

but for things like Agility and Flyball that were created just so that mixed-breed, shelter dogs had a sport to participate in...

I think I would tend to agree with your rant more than not (even though I'm now considering a mixed breed that you're ranting about) I just wanted to say that your history of agility is a bit off. It most certainly was not created as a sport for mixed breeds. In fact, most agree that agility was first debuted at Crufts. I don't know the history of flyball.

[wildo]

Originally Posted by Nickyb

Wildo, I see you your looking into one? What exactly do you want out of a malinois? Although they aren't the size of a gsd, they make up for it with there insane intensity. These dogs are meant to work, simple as that, and you need to be dedicated!
Example, I jog Zoey every morning before work 1/2 hour and play so intense fetch with her 1/2 hour (10 tennis balls constantly going back and forth, you should see my yard, errrr dirt field now!) When I get home I bump everything up to an hour, now if its pouring out, I'm stuck with a dog with energy that you can't quite manage.
I love Zoey, she's an awesome dog and every Mali I know is the same, they just require more work and up until its time for them to cross the bridge, their brain wants them to go go go go go.

What do you mean by settle?

This description is interesting to me, kinda makes me chuckle a bit even (in spite of my ignorance on the breed) because this description could easily have been given (and certainly HAS been given in the past!) by other forum members to describe their working line GSD. And then you have others come in and say things like- "wow, must suck to have a GSD like that. My working line GSD does not need that amount of stimulation in order to be livable."

I mean really- "stuck with a dog with energy that you can't quite manage"? Is it really that bad?? That definitely doesn't sound so fun, and I think you have answered your question of what do I mean by 'settle' in that description alone. If the dog goes freakin' crazy because it didn't get an hour of fetch one day, then that's probably not the dog for me. I don't think I'm too much of a slackass when it comes to training or stimulation, but I also expect my dog to deal with it if they don't get it one night...

[wildo]

Originally Posted by Liesje

Uh, the Mals I compete against are HUGE!!! The Dutchies too.

Yeah, that's why I started the thread. Most of the mals I've seen (and I haven't seen a TON) have definitely been large. 60+ pounds for sure. It's only in flyball settings that I've seen these tiny mals. I know you meant flyball as well... Just saying, the mals I've seen locally have all been the size of GSDs.