[San]

We have one Malinois and two working-line German shepherds. We have club members that have multiple Mals or Dutch shepherds, some do great, some have to crate/rotate because the dogs don't get along.

Like Artdog suggested, I would talk to the breeder and go from there =)

Best of luck!

 

[San]

Your girl does not sound like the typical Mal

Our Mal is now 2 years 3 months of age, before the age of 2, regardless of how much we exercised her (physically and mentally), she only settled down if we put her in her puppy pen or in a crate. Outside of training, the longest she had ever laid still was 20 seconds (literally), if she was not in a pen/crate, she had to be doing something, or else she would find things for herself to do.

We've been actively training her in Mondioring since 2 months of age, we took her to puppy/beginner OB classes for socialization, dabbled in agility to give her extra outlet, and now taking nosework classes (on top of Mondioring) to keep her busy.

In the last couple of months, she started to occasionally lay down by us (for up to 15 minutes )when we were busy, first time she did it, I checked her all over 'cuz I thought she was sick :rofl:

In another year or so, she should have a functional "off button." We've seen a good number of Mals in different dog clubs, I think ours is only "medium" in terms of intensity and energy level

 

[San]

@San would love to see some video of her work. Wow! And yep, just one mal would be 'too much dog' (as in 'way' too much) dog for me.
It's good to know your limit...
I wonder if Mals are like other 'working' dog breeds. Those bred for work are 'different' from pet & show lines? Are there 'pet' and 'showline' mals?

Serious Mal breeders breed for working abilities (and a lot of them do not sell to pet homes), but there are breeders who focus on confirmation or breed lower drive dogs as pets.

If someone is looking for a pet that is smart, fun to train, and has good drives, I would go with a German shepherd. Within the breed itself, like Moonstream mentioned, temperaments vary a lot. The "nervy" part, I've seen it in a good number of working line Mals, a lot of it is genetics, the other part depends on the handler, proper socialization and upbringing are especially important for Mals. When a high drive Mal is working, he is focused on his reward, nothing phases him, he seems brave and invincible, but once off the field and calm, all the nerviness surfaces, so a Mal that looks great when training or competing is not necessarily one with strong nerves.

A breeder that know his/her lines should be able to match an interested buyer with the right dog (or at least re-direct them to the right breeder).
@Artdog I don't want to hijack OP's thread, I will post some training videos of our dogs (one is a GSD rescue, both are training for Mondioring) in the next couple of days