You Can’t Tire Out a Belgian Malinois (Do This)

If you're trying to tire out your Belgian Malinois, bad news for you, you probably can't. You can wear their body out, sure, but the drive underneath never empties. And tiring them out was never really the point anyway. I'm not a trainer, but I've got two of these myself, and I spent the better part of a year working dogs as a decoy, taking bites in the suit. And that's where I learned you get a lot further working with a dog's drive than trying to burn it off. So this isn't a how-to, it's just what works for us. A walk is nothing to these dogs. For them, a lap around the block is just a warm-up where they're looking for trouble. Fetch and sprinting is one thing that'll actually drain them, at least physically, but that's the catch. Their body's cooked, and all the drive's still right there, staring me down, waiting on the next throw. And all I've really done is build a fitter dog who can go even longer tomorrow. Hiking's the closest thing I've got to a snooze button. Not an off switch, a snooze button. And it's not even about the miles. The whole hike, they're on, scanning the trail, clocking every person and dog and squirrel like it's their job. But it's also where we get to work on being normal out in the world. There's a narrow stretch, somebody needs to get by. We step off to the side, and they go into a down, and we let that person pass. We load up, and they're out cold on the whole drive home, but when we pull back into the driveway, they pop right back up like the hike never happened, ready to go again. Then there's the bite work. And like I said, I spent some time on the other end of this. That decoy work was basically a second job for me for a while. Several nights a week on the field, hours on end, sometimes till one or two in the morning, taking the bites so other dogs could train. And I've seen it up close. You'd think that letting a dog bite would wear it out, but no. Free bites just crank them up higher. What actually does something is making them earn it. Sometimes holding a position while every fiber in their body is screaming at them to launch. Sometimes a whole string of obedience first. And the bite only comes once they've done their part. It's the holding it together that wears them out, not necessarily the biting itself. The internet's favorite answer is mental stimulation, and I do plenty of that. Lick mats, stuffed Kongs, scattering treats in the grass and letting them hunt it down. All three of them holding a down stay with food sitting right there in front of them. But none of it is me trying to tire them out. It doesn't even dent their drive. I just do it because it's good for them. It's enriching and gives them something to figure out. But if you're handing over a stuffed Kong and expecting some peace and quiet, oh, that's adorable. That thing's lasting two minutes, maybe. The backyard is not exercised, by the way. Hell, it's barely even containment. When we first moved into this place, I made the rookie move of letting them out here to go potty unattended. Big mistake, not happening again. But basically what happened was this one decided to hop over the neighbor's fence, do who knows what over there, and then hop back over before my wife and I even knew what happened. We only found out because the neighbor came over and told us, hey, there's a dog in my yard. But by then she was already sitting back on our side of the fence, acting like the sweet, precious baby angel you see before you here. You already know how it is. These dogs do not want to quit ever, even when we sometimes really wish that they would. But I could wake them up out of a dead sleep and they will be ready to work like that. Hobie, on the other hand, would probably wait to see if there's treats involved or what the situation is. But the two big ones, the only time I've actually ever seen them tap out was one after like a long, nonstop, grueling fetch session or my girl Aries, the most dramatic dog on the planet in her living with reactivity class, actually choosing to settle instead of getting into it with another dog. But that's not her necessarily being tired as much as it is her flipping a switch, an off switch, one that we're still working on and building. And that off switch I can't really take credit for. It came from a couple of really good trainers and the one that we see now, I drive hours per week across town to go see him. Aries is obsessed with the guy. We call him her boyfriend. One of the big things that they gave me was a place. When I need these two to settle, I tell them cot or go to bed and it comes up constantly in the garage. I'll finish a heavy set. They can tell I'm gassed and they start tipping toward like full Tasmanian devil. But I just tell them cot or go to bed and it's pretty much handled. Same thing inside with their beds or their crates. But the cot's just a spot. If I take it away, the word doesn't really mean anything and I don't have one to take around with me out into the world. The real off switch is them capping their own drive. The same thing the bite work is about and the same thing Aries fights for in her class. That's the long game and we're still in it. If you've been around this channel for a while, then you know this is not just a dog thing for me. It's the same thing I've been saying since day one back when it was just me and a barbell. Fitness culture loves to sell us on the idea that we have to get absolutely wrecked for something to count or be worth it. If we're not crawling out of the gym and the session was a total waste, you know, that kind of thing. But I don't buy that. Not for a second because getting tired is not the point. The point is showing up, learning more about ourselves every time we do and slowly building capacity for the things that we actually care about. Some days we're going to be sharper than others. Other days we're just going to be a total mess and that's okay as long as we keep showing up. And if we give ourselves permission to actually enjoy the work, the rest is going to take care of itself. So it turns out I've been raising these dogs the same way that I've been training myself all these years. I think it just took until now actually making this video for me to say it out loud. So no, I can't tire them out. The best I can do is try to give them a good life, teach them how to cap that drive, and let the tired take care of itself. And if you've got a dog that never quits or you're just tired of being told that the only thing that counts is how wrecked you feel at the end, then you'll fit right in here. Now you can see that they're looking for trouble, so I got to get going. But we appreciate you spending part of your day with us and we're glad you came along. Let's go. Good job, you guys. You're so pretty. Who's my pretty girl? Who's my handsome boy?