Belgian Malinois

Temperament

Belgian Malinois are bred to be highly intelligent, alert and sensitive to everything going on around them, and to develop extremely strong relationship bonds. This means that they need significant socializing as puppies, life long activity outlets, and will seek to be with "their human" all the time, preferably doing something rather than waiting around. They can find it very difficult to be left alone. During their juvenile years, they can go through irrational fears (similar to the child who believes there is a monster in the closet), and can suddenly develop anxiety over some object or place which has never been a problem before, although these fade over time with a good positive lead. They tend strongly to be a "one person dog." Belgian shepherds like to please, and can over-react badly to "negative" (punishment or deterrence based) training, so they should as a rule be clicker- or reward-trained only.