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Belgian Malinois

Belgian Malinois Photo
Clk for large view Photo Jim Engel.

The Malinois, the short coated variety of the Belgian Shepherd, is similar in appearance to a less angulated, lighter boned and more square German Shepherd. Photos from the early years show much more similarity among these German, Dutch and Belgian Shepherds, particularly the Malinois variety, than exists today. This is the natural order of things, for specialist varieties of dogs did not evolve according to lines on a map but rather by the nature of their work, their weather and climate and the people and agricultural traditions among which they arose. The age old shepherds of this region of Europe tended their flocks and spoke dialects which would evolve into modern German or Dutch in an era long before the states of the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany came into existence.

This Malinois is a Flemish dog, for the primitive foundation stock was found generally in the modern Flemish province of Antwerp and extending north into the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant. Mechelen (Malines in French), the city from which the variety derives its name, lies twenty kilometers north of Brussels in the direction of Antwerp. In this region national boundaries are an artificial construct; for even today in driving the rural roads it is difficult to know which side of the twisting border you are on. Indeed, the ancient region of Brabant spans the border. So if the Malinois is an international dog, he is a Belgian-Dutch dog, not a Belgian-French dog.



Dec 24, 2015