owning these mixes should require a license like owning a gun requires a license, I think
WHY WOULD YOU MAKE A MALINOIS BUT FASTER???????
Controversial Opinion: this is going to actually result in dogs that are MORE sane than the original Malinois.
The thing about Mals is that they are very smart, very capable and really, really, REALLY want you to make all their decisions for them. They’re extraordinarily biddable if you’re confident enough, but if left to their own devices, they get into Descision Paralysis Hell, which is why so many of them are so neurotic- they NEED to have a job or The Horrors ™ get them. Part of the reason they make such good security animals.
Border Collies and Cattle Dogs OTOH, are very independent thinkers who were bred to make complex plans and decisions all on their own. If left to their own devices, they don’t develop panic attacks, they amuse themselves. mostly by doing crime.
Hybridizing a more Independent/Criminal breed into a Malinois is the first step into outcrossing Mals for health/less anxiety.
The Whippet is similar but in the opposite direction: Sighthounds aren’t decisive or ambitious the way that Border Collies and Cattle Dogs are, but they also don’t worry about shit- unless they have something to chase, they’re perfectly content to chill out as a Couch Potato. The drawback of being so chill is that sighthounds are A Little Stupid. Some of them really could get lost in a paper bag.
Miss Firefly up there is definitely very Nyoom, but once she’s NYOOMed to her content, she will probably be happy to vibe in your immediate proximity.
My childhood dog was… weird. A major mongrel. She followed my mom home one day when she was running by the canals, and then we just had her. But the two major breeds I remember her being mixed with were were husky (which was especially cruel for an Arizona dog wandering outside, poor thing) and border collie.
And she did many strange things, but the one I remember most happened one easter. My parents went around the yard, hiding eggs everwhere. And according to them, Leah (the dog) followed them, watching very intensely. Made sure she saw where each egg was put. Some of the eggs were put in spots that a dog really shouldn’t have been able to reach, like in a tree.
Then my parents went to bed, and Leah followed with.
Morning come, us kids went out to go out to find the eggs, and Leah had gathered them all into a pile. Very neatly. There was one egg that had been squoze open, and some jelly beans sampled, but she decided she really wasn’t that keen on them. So the rest were intact. And Leah was very proud of the pile. She sat by it very proudly, as if to say, See? See my works? See my crafts? See what I have done?
See?
And I’ve always been kind of curious about what compelled her to do that. If she was “herding” the eggs, or if she was just bored and thought it was a puzzle or… what.
I guess I’m asking you. You seem to know dog psychology pretty well. I’m curious to hear your guess. Leah was always kind of a black box to me. There were times when she more like something pretending to be a dog than a dog. If that makes sense.
“Mother. I have solved your egg puzzle. I will accept pets as payment but treats are also appreciated. Also, someone threw up in the laundry room.”
She threw up a lot. It was really hard to get her to not gorge herself whenever she ate – I think going hungry on the street really stuck with her. It wasn’t until she was a fairly middle aged dog that she had enough restraint to not eat jellybeans.
She still loved burying food for later though. Her whole life, she did that. And sometimes she’d take her cues for what food was from us, instead of what actually tasted good to her, so we had some weird incidents where we were digging in the garden and found things like cans of soup, or bags of pancake mix, and we’d be like. Leah. You cannot use a can opener. You don’t know how to make pancakes. Why have you done this.
And she would look a little embarrassed but not a whole lot. I remember my dad joking that we couldn’t get too mad at a dog for compulsively hoarding food when we had a whole room in our house just dedicate to dried beans. At some point it’s just funny for God to put a Mormon dog in a Mormon family.
amhrancas 