So you think you want a working line Belgian? What you should expect...
I absolutely adore these dogs and at this point would never have anything else...but they certainly aren't for everybody!! While they are fantastic sport dogs, generally handler oriented, and highly trainable, they are extremely active and driven dogs. Here is my personal list of potential pros and cons that might be helpful to someone considering one of these dogs for themselves. You will notice there are qualities listed on BOTH, because everything is a double edged sword...
PROS:
CONS:
PROS:
- They tend to be high energy, which is a wonderful quality for sport work
- They react quickly to things, which is wonderful when it involves training behaviors and rewards
- They typically have high drive and tend to chase things, which is again wonderful for training as you have built in high value rewards
- They tend to have strong feelings about toys and objects - again, built in high value rewards!
- They tend to be naturally handler oriented
- Engagement training is in their wheelhouse
- They tend to be handler sensitive; they typically care about what you think and feel
CONS:
- They tend to be high energy and require a lot of daily exercise and stimulation
- They react quickly to things (this is less wonderful when it involves the dog reacting to something outside of your training)
- They typically have high drive and tend to chase things, which can be problematic in the real world without training
- They tend to have strong feelings over toys and objects, which can create a lot of conflict if you don't know how to train through that
- They can frustrate easily (frustration leads to many problem behaviors)
- They require a lot of daily structure, management, and exercise
- You should expect to use a crate a lot for at least 2 years
- You should expect they won't be able to be loose in your house without getting into trouble for at least 2 years
- You should expect they won't settle well in the house until at least 2 years old
- You should expect they will need counter conditioning and desensitizing to body handling
- You should expect they will be possessive over items and will need to learn food and toy redirection