‘I haven't been able to even think about dropping her off at the shelter without bursting into tears.’: The heartfelt dilemma of a canine pawrent who, against all logic, considers keeping a high-drive belgian malinois puppy while preparing for parenthood

Author image for Laurent Shinar
Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor
Sep 28, 2025 1:00 PM EDT

Doggo rescues are an emotional ordeal, that is for sure. To begin with finding a poor pupper all on their own, left to fend for themselves is a truly heartbreaking thing to see. Then, the condition they have gotten to be in, is usually no easier to stomach than the fact that they have been left all alone in the world. But often what happens is that this emotion blinds us to any sort of critical thinking that we should be doing when thinking about what to do with these sweet souls who need a home.

The obvious answer is usually to open up our homes to them. But in reality, that is not always the right thing to do, not for them and not for you. And this story is the pawfect example of exactly what a pawrent should do when faced with the impossible decision of keeping a canine in their home, or passing them onto a shelter who can find them a home who has space and time for them.
 

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  • 01
    Found this baby girl roaming the hills where we live. Tick and flea infested. Not chipped and a small neck wound. It angers me so much that people take their dogs and
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    release them in the hills. She was surprisingly friendly and approached us even though we had a full grown GSD in the car with us. Inside the vet room I taught her sit within five minutes. She's
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    Play
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    pretty intelligent and curious and fearless! She jumped off the vet table! She might be around four months old. She looks like a Belgian shepherd mix.
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  • Wow, this sounds like one heck of a dog, smart, funny and brave, the full canine package. We can only wonder how on earth this hooman will have the heart to make the decision they have to make for the sake of their family. 

  • 06
    My husband and I found a 4month puppy on the street a few weeks ago, we got it all fixed up with shots and meds at the vet (poor gal had fleas, ticks, neck wound, worms, and Giardia) but no
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    microchip and not spayed. We have been posting on multiple sites/searching for the owner for 3 weeks now with no luck, she was likely abandoned. I got her DNA tested as I was kind of hoping
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  • 09
    she wasn't a full malinois, but results came back and she is a 100% Belgian Malinois (posting here because original post was here). I've always been aware of the breed's needs and I
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    know how much time, energy, and discipline these dogs need to thrive and to be honest, I don't have that in me currently. I've been working nonstop being a small business
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    A
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    owner and we are also trying to conceive. In these past 3 weeks alone, my physical health, mental sanity, and work has already been affected by having this pupper (my Oura ring scores are in the trash), and
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  • 13
    I'm reading that after the puppy stage it gets more exhausting. We take dog ownership very seriously so this pup has plenty of walks/play sessions/homemade treats/lick and snuffle mats, etc. My
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    husband spends multiple sessions each day training her in different ways, with me reinforcing training as well. She got potty trained in 10 days, is doing well with numerous commands and her recall is impressive
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  • Well, with the level of seriousness that this couple are applying to this darling doggo’s training it is truly a problem as whether or not this doggo is tougher to handle than other breeds, the amount of time and effort that they believe is necessary to put into any doggo is immense. And they are not totally wrong.

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    (or she's just really clingy). We got her evaluated by a professional trainer (whom we may look into hiring if needs must) and we take both dogs into work with us for the 4 days we are in the office. I would say
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    we are just about scraping by making this unexpected pup work (but with no children and the dog only being ~4 months old). My mom friends say a belgian malinois and new parenthood
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    don't mix and that I'll regret keeping the dog when those months of parenthood arrive. I agree that the early days will not be easy, but also believe that everything is temporary and dogs
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    are trainable (and we'll have at least 9 months to train this pup before a baby arrives). I trained our current dog, a бyo GSD, myself and it was a rough 1.5 years but she is now my #1 source of joy.
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    I believe we could give this new pupper a great home, a great life, but at the risk of my sanity for a few years. My husband has always wanted a malinois and we're both leaning towards keeping this pup as I
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    haven't been able to even think about dropping her off at the shelter without bursting into tears. Our older GSD is calm and can hang around the house all weekend without
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    demanding anything, just existing happily with her introverted self. This malinois puppy could not be more opposite.... and I'm wondering how dumb am I to consider keeping
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    this pup while preparing my life for new parenthood? Looking for advice or experience with similar situations (i.e. high-drive pup with first time parenthood + heavy workload).
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  • 27
    Em... Top 1% C... It sounds like you answered your own question. You said you don't have the time or energy. Nothing wrong with that.
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Belgian Malinois parenthood heartfelt dilemma puppy reddit story canine pawrents think tears preparing dog story animal shelter logic
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