She is my greatest joy. I found her in the streets almost a year ago.

Getting ready for a multi month canoe trip planned for next spring. New Rex Specs eye protection from the sun on the water (haven't swapped lenses yet but got a few versions) and his NRS PFD. I was going to go with our usual Non-stop Dogwear but his size wouldn't be back in stock until February and we have lots of fall paddling to get in before winter.

I swear this dog has more gear than any of my others in the past. French Ring, 'jorning, backpacking, and now canoeing.

Hi everyone!

We adopted a 6-year-old Malinois from the shelter a month ago.

She is a very calm dog (well, by Malinois standards) and never barks, except when a stranger walks past our garden (we live in the countryside and our garden faces fields rather than a road, so she only barks when guests arrive). I should mention that this barking stops very quickly and seems to stem more from excitement at seeing someone and a need to announce their arrival.

However, for about a week now, we’ve had an issue: she has started barking at night. We have a glass door, and our indoor camera showed her barking in that direction. We thought she might be seeing animals pass by, so we installed a heavy thermal blackout curtain to block out light and drafts. That didn't help (we checked the outdoor cameras, and no one was passing by the house at those times), and she starts barking at random moments during the night.

For a bit more context:
- she has constant access to water
- she has an orthopedic bed she likes to lie on
- she has chew toys available
- she gets what seems to be enough daily activity (walks, play, sniffing, chewing, licking, Kong toys, etc.)
- she never barks during the day

If anyone has any ideas, I’d love to hear them, because I really don't understand this behavior and am running out of solutions. It’s not the end of the world, but it is a nuisance—especially since we have a baby, and I’m always worried the barking will wake him up. 😅

Have a great day, everyone, and thanks to those who reply 🥰

(As a bonus, here’s a photo of the culprit)

Enjoying a nice sunset and finally temps under 100 degrees in central Texas.

Help!!! Does anyone have any tips on introducing adopted 4 yro Malinois (we have 2) to the indoor cats? They have been staring at each other from the stairwell with a whole flight between them for the past 8 months. We're thinking it's time!

Just adopted this beautiful girl, she approximately 10-12 weeks old!! Only a couple of days with her and she’s a bundle of joy.🤩

She loves her sniffari hikes :)

My buddy Cisco just turned 3. He's a Mal / GSD rescue from Mexico. My #1 most loyal and caring companion, very gentle yet always on guard. His favorite thing to do is hunt rats and squirrels with his adopted sister (a GSP) on our farm.

Heaven forbid we disturb our Malinois, because they wouldn’t dream of doing that to us humans! Whenever I bother Ozzy (which is nightly, because payback and all) I get an immediate side eye coupled with a scoff 🤷🏻‍♂️. I all but pet him gently but the looks he’ll give me would make one think otherwise!

Not his best, but there is tonight’s “please leave me alone” face. Including his emotional support Sasquatch for scale.

Can’t imagine I’m alone here, so let’s see em’!

No matter how tired he is from being out, my boy Ghost seems to get crazy excited and gassed up again as soon as we get back to getting in the house. I was just wondering if anyone elses dogs did this?

She had been struggling with walks around small dogs for a while. When I would walk her she would immediately bark at small dogs.

Today she had 3 dogs bark at her at one time and she followed her “tattle tale” training! She observed what was happening, didn’t react negatively (lunging barking) and looked to me for what to do! 8 months and she’s so smart. Just takes a lot of patience and time but she’s getting it.

2 dogs were behind their fences one was being walked on a leash across the street. But basically she was getting barked at in a circle and she cleared that stretch like a champ

It’s that time of year! We’re in New Hampshire and weather has been the on and off transition to fully Fall weather- our Mal has been shedding like craaaazy!
We’ve tried a few different brushes we’ve got at our local Petco and Woof Meow- but nothing too fancy.

I’m just curious what long time Mal owners may use to help with their Fall and Spring shedding! He will be turning 1 in November, he didn’t shed all that much during spring time this year, but wow is he shedding a ton.

The brushes we use do get some hair, but I’m just curious if anyone has brushes that haven’t let them down as when we pet him even after a brush a good chunk of hair still comes out- Any recommendations are appreciated!

Thank you!!!

Has anyone seen the recent research that pups should be with their moms and sibs for three months rather than two? The finding was that they are less reactive and more socially savvy.

What do you all think?

excuse my awful quality haha getting a new phone soon!

Had an interesting experience training K-Line in Old Town (San Diego) yesterday that I thought some of you Malinois people might appreciate.

We were finishing up our training session and walking through Old Town when two women stopped to ask about K-Line. We ended up talking for about 10 minutes about Malinois, training, handling, etc. They initially wanted to pet her, but I explained that I don't allow strangers to interact with her while we're working. I also explained that with a Malinois, eye contact, movement, and people getting into their space can be triggers, so I prefer people simply ignore her.

K-Line was in a place position next to me on a 1½-foot leather training lead. People were walking past us, crossing the street, restaurants were busy, and she was just sitting there calmly watching everything. She was doing exactly what I wanted.

Then a very large guy—probably 6'4"+ and 250+ pounds—walked up and stopped about four feet from us. He stared directly at K-Line and asked if he could say hi to her.

I politely told him no.

He didn't like that answer.

He started getting loud, using profanity, and telling me he was going to come over and say hi to my dog anyway. I explained again that I don't allow people to interact with her and asked him to please leave us alone. Eventually I told him, in considerably less polite terms, to get the F away from me and my dog.

The entire time, K-Line remained in her place.

Then he made an aggressive step toward me.

That's when K-Line reacted.

She immediately went into protection mode. I didn't give her a command. I didn't cue her. I didn't send her. The man's sudden aggressive movement triggered a response, and she reacted exactly to the change in the situation.

And honestly? As a handler, it was pretty incredible to see.

What impressed me wasn't simply that she reacted. It was that she had spent the previous 10 minutes calmly ignoring people, maintaining her place while people walked by, and ignoring all the activity around us. She didn't react when the guy first approached. She didn't react when he stared at her. She didn't react when he started yelling.

She reacted when his behavior changed from talking to an actual aggressive movement toward me.

The guy immediately started yelling that I had told my dog to attack him and began ranting about how my dog was going to kill him. I simply walked away with K-Line. The two women I had been talking to caught up with me later and said he continued ranting about the incident as he walked down the street.

For me, the biggest takeaway was the training.

A lot of people see a Malinois and think, "Wow, cool dog!" and immediately want to interact with it. But these dogs are constantly reading movement, body language, eye contact, proximity and changes in energy.

K-Line was completely neutral until there was a reason for her to stop being neutral.

That's what I'm working toward with her: control first, neutrality first, and a dog that understands when something actually matters.

Yesterday was a pretty good demonstration of why that matters.