Help with Malinois Puppy Questions

My puppy was born June 5th of this year. All she really likes to do is sleep, eat and go to the washroom. Doesnt really play with any toys or bite anything.

However, is she too young for walking or leash training? When I do take her out she cries and scratches her neck constantly and tries to get her head out of the collar. She will walk for a tiny bit and sit down to scratch and keep repeating. I do not pull or drag her when she does this. I simply stand still and wait until her outburst is finished and keep walking in the direction I want to go in. She follows me off leash outside around the block though when it's dark out. But these outbursts happen mostly just during the day and not at night. Is she just too tired for short walks? Or is this something else? I have had many dogs before and none of the puppies have ever done this.

Even when she is at home, she doesn't run around. Shes very calm for a puppy. And all health checks have been normal as well. But she is so easily spooked and shakes a lot with noises or even kids playing basketball outside are close by.

Scratching at the neck is usually a sign that she isn't completely used to the feel of the collar yet.
Re. Exercise periods. The usual rule is 5 minutes for each month of the puppy's life, once or twice a day. This helps to protect the puppy's joints, which are not fully developed at this age. Free running on grass, without a lead, does not count.

How old [young] was your puppy when you got her, and had she had any socialisation before you got her? She is such a cute girl and it seems a shame that she does not seem to act like a puppy regarding toys etc.

I won't pretend to be an expert on dog behavior but do have 2 females and 1 male pure breed Belgian Malinois and have had 3 litters we raised and found their forever homes.

With that said, she is a young pup and you did not say how long you have had her or what her socialization was before and after you've had her. She could just be adjusting to her new environment without her siblings and mother. She is definitely not too young for leash training and I would recommend some patience. You mentioned you do not pull or drag her and that is good as Belgians don't do well with negative training. Keep at it and heap on the positive praise when she does what you want.

Belgian Malinois are normally very confident dogs (in my opinion) but can be a bit overwhelmed when going to their new home; we've kept in touch with all the owners of the pups and have visited most. Our Belgians freak out with fireworks, the other dogs don't. If she is comfortable walking around at night, when I assume there is less traffic, people and other dogs out so that is a good idea to keep making those walks as she gets used to her new home and surroundings.

There are much smarter people on this forum that should have some additional advice. Good luck!

Shawn

Forgot one thing...most of our dogs have been much happier during leash training with a harness instead of a collar. Our little Papillon hated a collar and our 3 Belgians are trying to help us put on the harness to go for a walk as soon as they see it. Might be another option to make your pup more comfortable for the leash training.

Shawn

I don’t have a whole lot of advice based on Mal’s, but have a ton of experience with GSD’s. And from what I’ve heard and seen of other people’s Mals, what you’re describing sounds very abnormal. Even for a nonworking breed.

Has she been dewormed? I had a friend that bought a pup based on how low of a drive it had. Come to find out it just had a huge worm load. This was after the breeder had already wormed the litter. If you don’t keep up on the timing of the deworming, you can easily get a pup with a worm load. Deworming only kills adults, not eggs, so it doesn’t take long after a deworming for a pup to have a large worm load.

The most common thing I hear is “well, I don’t see any worms, my pup is fine.” Other than adult roundworms, internal parasites are invisible to the naked eye. A fecal and stool sample can’t even catch all parasites. Coccidia and Giardia are both parasites that often slip by a fecal and stool sample testing. It can cause very low energy in pups, and can cause bowel issues such as diarrhea.

Have you tried her with a harness instead of a collar? It may just do the trick.

All dogs are individuals so some are more laid back than others. They still make absolutely wonderful companions

I picked her up on Tuesday night. So I have had her for 4 days now. She is just over 9 weeks, but not 10 weeks yet. I don't believe the litter was socialized properly or at all, only with children. The breeder kept them in an outdoor kennel outside in the backyard. The mother was extremely calm and well behaved and made me play ball with her over and over again.

On wednesday I took her to the vet for a check up, they dewormed her and gave her medicine and we have to check back in a month to see if the medication worked. I never tried a harness, but I will look into it. It's very hard to find anything that fits her instead of being too big.

I'm not sure how to get her comfortable with cars, noises in the day time. We have 3 other dogs who get along with her and she is scared of other dogs when they bark or when a very irresponsible owner tries to bring their dog over to us and their dog is pulling, choking and coughing, and my puppy just yelps and tries to run. Very hard to socialize with other dogs as my entire street I swear nobody knows how to control their dog.

Four days? I really think you are rushing things with your puppy. There is no way that she could be lead trained in four days, and I had quite missed the fact that she was out being walked before her vaccinations had time to take effect. She must still be adapting to leaving her littermates, and all that she has known so far. It will now be up to you to introduce her to the big world that she now finds herself a part of. Gently does it.

Yeah, you shouldn’t be taking them out so soon. My pup was 5 months before we took her anywhere but our yard and the vets, and we carried her into the vets office. Vet rules, we have an obscene amount of Parvo cases so it’s necessary.

Her first walk we did on a harness, and she did great. We use a martingale on the Mal, works great. But we won’t take him out either until he’s fully vaccinated.

You should also do a two week shut down. Basically meaning you teach her nothing but potty training and crate training. You don’t seek her out to play, you just carry on like any other day. With the exception of feeding and the two mentioned about. You can google it.

Remember her whole world has suddenly changed, she just went from being with her littermates 24/7 to a strange place with people/ dogs she doesn’t know, some puppies adjust quicker than others.
Take things easy and don’t try and push her, give her time to get to know you and her new surroundings. Whatever training you decide to do make it a lot of fun, find out if she is food or toy motivated and go from there.

Hello ,

Just wanna say ,that every dog it is different. Hopefully untill now yo have succeeded with leash training,if not I recommend using tracking leash(long leash)