Malinois? General Chat

We've recently rescued what seems to be a belgian malinois or possibly a dutch shepherd. Hes younger than a year and very friendly. We have alot of other dogs, mostly smaller and they dont want to play with him because he's like an overbearing child to them. He has unusual markings that ive not seen on those 2 breeds. Has anyone? Heres pics. Note the black spots.

Looks like he has a stray merle gene from another breed. It would be interesting to dna test him for breed. If you did, do let us know the result.

Im looking into doing that. Ill post any result.

Found a good test for 159 dollars. Wisdom panel. Anyway it doesnt really matter.

Heres another view of him hard at work.

I researched merle genes. It doesnt seem like he's that and i hope not. Theres several health issues that go along with that. Also blue eyes are common with that gene and hes got brown. Im getting the dna test anyway out of curiosity and it can reveal any health tendencies. I thinking hes just tri-color or has a mix in him. Im not looking to breed him so it really doesnt matter. I guess we'll have him neutered although i hate to put him through any discomfort.

The health issues normally result from mating merle to merle.
With your boy it looks more like a touch of the type of dappling that you get in breeds like Dachshunds or Catahoulas. It could be something from way back.
I once had a very well bred Golden Retriever with a black spot on his muzzle; a rare occurence but they do occasionally happen.

Looks like a brindle to me. Sometimes rather than striping, a brindle coat will have splotches o f black like that.

Thanks for that info. I like his markings. It makes him very unique

Well.....i just received the dna results, not only does my dog have NO belgian whatsoever, he has 16 breeds in him. 50% gsd, 4% is white swiss shepherd, which is just white gsd. So he's 54 % gsd. Pretty much any common dog is in there ranging from 1 to 7%. 61% are herding breeds. But there is somehow 1% poodle (not standard) and gasp...chihuahua! Oh, we'll never be able to show our faces on the street.
Just kidding. All those breeds made the best all-around dog i could ever want. Ill be calling him a gsd mix now. I spoke with a customs agent who was at the park training one of their dogs. He said i should hope he wasnt belgian. He personally has gsds. And says belgians are hyper-motivated. Oh well. My dog still looks like a belgian with weird markings. He's got to be good lookin cause he's so hard to see.

Wow! That's the most breeds in a single dog I've personally heard of.

You can't go wrong with a GSD mix. They are great dogs.

He looks very flexible. My Tornado-dog can curl up real tight like that (and can pretty much turn back over himself like a weasel). Tornado-dog is JRT with collie, shih tzu and pekinese. I wish he had even just a bit of GSD in there to counter the JRT.

Love the Beatles reference

Fantastic - you couldn't have imagined it. I agree with your chap at the park, Malinois are super active and intelligent, but they do tend to be a full-time job!
You love him and he is a good looking boy, so that's a win win. Thanks for letting us know.

I think he is extremely handsome, however many different breeds are in his dna!

(Major fan) my dog (dusty) has a coloring that makes him hard to see in low light, and he's good looking. So that would've practically written some of those lyrics.

All but the gsd are in the single digits percentile-wise.

Pekinese? My 1st dog was a peke. So i have a warm place in my heart for them. The cutest puppies too.
Your dog looks awesome, but "tornado-dog"? I wonder how he earned that nick name.

So they don't really count then, do they!

Id like to think that, especially the chihuahua and poodle.

Somehow I cannot see either in your lovely lad! My two previous dogs [the one in my avatar was the girl before my current one] were both mutts of unknown origin. My current little one is a definite [accidental and unwanted] cross between a rather surprised maiden Standard Dachshund mom and a randy little Minpin.