In this post, we’ve gone a little “all over the place” because it’s hard not to gush about the Belgian Malinois.

We start with a competitive sport that’s been developing into its present form in Europe for about 100 years, Ringsport.

Almost every town in Belgium and France has a Ringsport club. The sport involves jumping, obedience, and bite work, but just to participate, a dog must first pass the Certificat de Sociabilité et d’Aptitude à l’Utilisation (Certificate of Sociability and Aptitude for Work) temperament test. There are three earned levels, and each one moves into progressively more difficult situations that make greater demands on the dog.

This is not Schutzhund. The most obvious differences between the two is that French Ringsport has no tracking, the decoy (helper) wears a full body suit that the dog can bite anywhere, the order of exercises is random, and when the team walks on the field they complete the entire routine all at once.

In Belgium, the sport (closely related with the Belgian Police and Army Forces because most of their dogs are bought and trained in the circuit)  is completely dominated by the Malinois.

The video below is not ringsport, but if offers one demonstration of why the breed is so impressive. Meet “Monkey” trained by Omar Von Muller. You might not know Von Muller’s name, but you’ve seen his work in the movies: He trained Uggie, a Jack Russell Terrier who appeared in Water for Elephants and The Artist, and also the dogs in The Italian Job and Four Brothers:

In the opinion of many, the Malinois is an excellent breed for this level of training because breeders, as a whole, have been careful to preserve its drive and intrinsic motivation, and while they are high energy dogs, we’ve been told by breeders that well bred Mals have an “off” switch. We came across this comment in a forum for training which alludes to this:

“I ran into my first experience with Mals some 30 years ago. We were doing protection dog work. I was tasked with “catching” the dogs on an escape situation. I was to fire a couple shots with the blank pistol and run away. Then the dog was sent. I was about 230# and in excellent shape. I had done this exercise many times with different dogs….just not Mals. The dog was sent from about 100 yards away. When I saw the dog coming it looked like a furry arrow. He was incredibly fast. Being an engineer I knew kinetic energy was 1/2 mass times velocity squared and I knew this guy was coming fast and the hit was going to be hard. BAM! I was flat on the ground and he had ripped the protective sleeve off my arm. Tore the handle right out of it, I still had it in my hand.. he was probably as surprised as I was. But he dropped the sleeve and immediately came back at me. I instinctively raised my right arm as I had hard leather gauntlet on and he clamped down hard on it then pulled back to prevent me from getting up. I heard the release command and he instantly let go and began rapid fire barking. The handle came up and made the “arrest” then the handler gave the reward object to the dog. They didn’t tell me ahead that this guy was an experienced patrol dog.”

It’s often said that the Malinois isn’t for everyone, and probably not for a first time owner. This may be true, but it can be said of a lot of breeds of different sizes. The Malinois can be a marvelous dog for the right family when properly introduced or raised with children, but owners need to remember that as a herding breed, the Malinois will want to “herd” the kids. Also, a reminder that children should never be left alone unsupervised with any breed of dog.

We conclude with a video of the softer side of the breed, and this is the same “Monkey” you saw earlier:

 

You can see some of Von Muller’s training videos on his Facebook page, and some of Monkey’s “baby pictures” on Muller’s Instagram page from which our top photo comes.