Blue Malinois Photos

Not sure whether I entirely like or not ...

I like - do you have any standing photos?

No, afraid not.

Different... But very beautiful.

OMG - absolutely stunning

There are pics around if you have a search on Google Images.

The Blues turn up sometimes in working line litters, particularly in the USA but a few have been produced in Europe. Blue being a recessive colour, it can be carried hidden for many generations.

As it was deemed an 'undesirable' colour in Belgians right from the breed's inception, it does not appear to turn up in show-bred Belgians of any variety, meaning the gene has probably been lost within those lines.

I quite like!

Love the Black Mals too

For those interested, there is an article on the excellent Belgian Dogs website about Blue Malinois.

It's only available in French or Dutch, so you'll need to run it through Google translate (and ignore some of the stranger translation!) but you'll get the gist of it (the translation from Dutch is much better).
http://belgiandogs.info/en/genetics/onze-mechelaars-worden-blauw

The site is a mine of information on Belgian Shepherd history and there are some articles (complete with archive photographs) about "Black Malinois" - which, once you have read through, you will realise are more properly termed "black shorthaired Belgian Shepherds".

The two articles about the Blacks are in the Blog section and I think are only in French (may be I can't find the Dutch version) and are titled Colours Dresses by Charles Huge [=poor translation, should really be Coat Colours...lol]

I LIKE... he / she is quite stunning.

Blue is a dilute colouration that has NEVER been acceptable in the Malinois - look again at the lack of pigmentation on the lips and nose and the incredibly pale eyes - all completely wrong - the true Malinois is stunning enough without some numpty trying to breed for 'rare' colours that go against the whole history of the breed

He looks a lot like a Pharoah Hound...... sorry not for me.

I am against people breding for 'rare' colours - but at the same time I am against colours that are perfectly natural and have no health problems for the breed being dismissed as 'wrong'
It seems it is natural for some in the breed to carry the dilute gene - and so sometimes this colouration will pop up, why is that 'wrong'?

...so Ben you would presumably have no objection to black Weimeraners - or white Dalmatians ..or tan Kerry Blue's ...or liver Yorkies ?.....breeds are largely defined by their specific physical breed characteristics - after all the GSD and the BSD were bred for the same purpose - only the difference in the way they look defines them as separate breeds not their function - the BSD is separated into it's varieties only by coat type and colour and short haired fawn with a black mask is what makes a BSD a Malinois !!



dark pigmentation and intense dark eyes that give the breed it's wonderful expression are a hallmark of the breed - why on earth would you change this ....



to this ......?????

I can fully understand why breeders go ape when they see blue BSD and blue GSD as I do the same when I see blue Weimaraners.

The last blue GSD I saw was a total health wreck.

This makes sense to me.

From my what I have read, it seems that people who breed specifically for rare colours do just that - breed for colouration and perhaps are not as focussed on health, temprament etc. However, if the odd one pops out of a litter and it's perfectly healthy then there is no issue?

I am no expert, but is the dog in question a full malinois? Head look a littl heavy to me :?

I am not looking to change anything, its a natural but rare colour in the breed
Personally I would keep it that way - not breeding for it and not trying to get rid of it - simply breeding great examples of the breed and enjoying the wonderful surprises
for the other breeds you have mentioned if the colours are natural in the breed, associated with no health problems and the dogs produced are long lived with great correct tempraments then I see no issue with it at all so long as the rare colours are not being bred for
Like in border collies the dilutes should be pretty rare but some kennels churn out way too many of them - and if you are breeding for something so rare then you are significantly reducing your breeding options and so most likely some other criteria will slip - currently the kennels I know it seems to be health and temprament are being sacrifised for pretty candy colours that people pay more for

As for GSD and BSD's differences, they seem pretty different in temprament to me, but if you feel the only actual defining differences in them was the markings then personally I dont see that as a good enough reason to split a breed and reduce the gene pool for them - note I dont think this is the case - I dont think if people stopped breeding solely for a mask colour that suddenly the dogs would all become GSD's as I thik they are quite different
Yes they may have been bred for a similar function - but a similar function by different people in a different area so therefore the function is slightly different and so the form is slightly different - so I dont think you will loose either breed if you didnt focus so strongly on a mask when breeding

Blue pops up in Estrelas sometimes, infact one of Cato's sisters is a dilute(blue)and I find her quite pretty. Being blue certainly wouldn't prevent her from doing the job the breed was and still is used for.its not standard, but it's hardly the end of the world is it? Same with bsd and gsd, providing colour dilution alapetia isn't an issue.

Btw, you can get blue spotted dalmatians too apparently.

you have misunderstood ...I said that within the BSD breed it is only colour and coat type that define the varieties -that's why they are so important. I also said many dogs served the same function but are defined as breeds because of the way they look -of course GSD physically differ form BSD in many ways other than simply colour and masking and it is those physical differences that make them separate breeds NOT the original function they were bred for ( rather like Suffolk Punch and the Clydesdale horse or the Tamworth and Gloucester Old Spot pig breeds - all bred for same function but defined by the way they LOOK as separate breeds )