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Originally Posted by DogandBigCatMama  Im not sure if anyone else here owns or has even ever heard of a Belgian Tervuren. But I have a young male named Sebastiaan who is trained in personal protection. He came from a amazing reputable breeder who had us on a waiting list for two years before we ever got our Terv pup. Sebastiaan has been a great addition to our family. He is very smart and his personality is just wonderful in my opinion. So I figured I would tell you all a bit about Tervs.
You may know that there are three other Belgian sheep dogs. There is the more popular Malinois which has a smooth short coat. Then there is the Groenendael which has a long coat like a Terv but must always be black in color. Then there is the Laekenois which has a short rough curly coat. Really they are are similar in personality with some slight differences. Tervs won over my heart and I personally love the long beautiful coat.
Like his Belgian cousins the Terv is strong, smart, serious, sensitive, sweet, and extremely protective. I personally find them to be more intense than German Shepherds. And with all the horrible lines of GSDs nowadays if your looking for a good Schutz dog I would personally go with any of the Belgians before a GSD any day. If you do decide on a Terv puppy you must must MUST properly socialize your puppy. With Sebastiaan I took him everywhere with me and exposed him to all sorts of people, animals, machines, and situations. We wanted him to protect the property but not be aggressive or dangerous. He is well trained and follows commands and he knows when to turn it on and off. They are not a breed for someone who cannot give them plenty of attention. With three kids still at home Sebastiaan gets plenty of play time and physical attention. He also has a whole pack of dogs to keep him entertained. However weekly my husband works with him in a long training session going over all his commands which Sebastiaan loves. We also have agility jumps set up which my daughter loves to work him over. If a Terv is left with nothing to do they can do serious damage to your property lol.
We have friends who have fallen in love with Sebastiaan. He is beautiful and powerful and it obvious by looking at him he is impressive. But this didn't happen over night. It took alot of socializing and training and he must be handled constantly with a firm hand. Tervs are a breed that if you give them a inch they will walk all over you. They are the same way with other dogs. When Sebastiaan very first came to live with us we had to make it clear to him that dominant behavior was a major "No No" with people and the other dogs alike. Tervs can be overly dominant with other dogs and if they are not properly socialized and trained it can be a real problem. Sebastiaan knows his place though he is still young and occasionally gets snotty with Hiro occasionally we allow Hiro to put Sebastiaan in his place. Do not underestimate a Tervurens intelligence they are EXTREMELY smart and will try to maniplulate their owners if given the chance. This also makes them extremely fun to train and teach tricks and new skills to. They catch on quickly and love to learn they love to be challenged. Which is why they make such great police and search and rescue dogs.
They do tend to be one person dogs. Not that Sebastiaan isn't great with the whole family. But he is especially bonded to my husband and my 14 year old daughter. Actually he is more so bonded to my daughter than to any of us. And though he is a working dog and isn't your typical constant companion he has a special bond with her. Also same with other dogs if a Terv puppy is exposed to other animals like cats and smaller animals they can live with them peacefully. Sebastiaans bestfriend infact is my 17 year old sons black cat Demon. You can often find them cuddling lol.
Well I hope this was interesting and not just me babbling on and on about my dog lol. If you have any other questions just let me know! |
Hi, a proud owner of a Belgian Malinois - Aron, from Croatia, EU.
Aron is 2 yrs, 3 months old now and a very obedient and smart dog. He spends most of the time inside the house now, but it took a lot of work to achive that.
I have read your post twice and find Sebastiaan very similar to my Aron. Exept for one thing, Aron cant stand cats, reason is my cat Linda attacked him when he was a puppy. I have tried a lot of different things to correct that as we have 2 cats, but still no help. Aron has an incredible high prey drive that is very hard to control, he was the biggest and strongest puppy from his brothers and sisters when i took him, 4 months old, and obviosly he was ment to be the alfa dog.
Yes, maybe stuppid me, concidering that he is my first dog, even the breeder was trying to convince me to pick another one, but... here we are and we are both happy now.
We passed 2 schoolls here in Croatia, the "Responsible dog owners class", and first stage of the training in "Croatian belgian sheppards club" - really a working dogs club, so we did not continue, i did not want to teach him defence and attack...
Aron is very good with other dogs, always tries to play, even he was attacked and bitten twice by f labrador and another f dog. He shows no interes about people when we are outside, but that was a part of our training.
The only thing i never achived was to get hin to play with me?
Toys inside the house yes, he retrives balls, even makes difference between 2 balls. Tag of war, yes but looses interes outside if he smells something and drives his attention away.
I can talk about him hor hours here, but i think is enough for now.
U can all see pics of Aron at:
Flickr: andrejjelica's Photostream 
Belgian Tervuren 
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