I've known one Mal personally. I had a customer a few weeks ago with a Mal.
One of our regular customers has a Dutch shepherd (I know, not the same exact thing
) that is her service dog. Awesome, awesome dog.
Wellll, Dutchies and Mals are pretty frequently interbred, and while they're not EXACTLY the same thing, I think many Dutchie owners would argue they're pretty close. I'm quite certain there's a little bit of Maligator in my Dutch. (She's my SD too, so that's pretty awesome.)
I never see any Belgians. I have met one, ONE Malinut in my entire life, and he was bad enough it made me not want to seek one out at any point.
Maybe I'm crazy enough to consider one in the future, but I'd be quite happy to just have a long coated Dutch as well.
Although, I do love the fluffy butt Mals. I think there's one or two in Michael Ellis' videos, I'd love to steal. It may be the one named Enzo, as a matter of fact, lol
Even at AKC shows, I don't think I've run into any of the Belgians, though I may just keep missing their breed ring.