I've been following this thread with some interest for a few days now. Seems to be a lot of good advice from some very informed people about Mali's. About a year (and some change) ago, my daughter ended up bringing a Mali home as a pet (was not "in the plan", it just kind of happened). The wife was...apprehensive about my daughter's choice.
From day one, all I could say was "wow". This was a puppy pound dog, that came from a breeder (girls at the pound were explaining the back ground as we were looking for a dog for my daughter). Apparently, the litter was given to the pound because two separate males covered the same bitch, and the litter showed it. It appears that the breeder dealt in Groenendael and Malinios, and the bitch was covered by males of both breeds, since three of the four puppies were clearly Groenendaels and the other (the one we ended up with) was Malinios. Whether this is actually what happened or not (don't really know and don't really care actually), I still sit back and say "wow" when working with "Sasha".
I have never be a real dog person, (growing up in the military, it was not something my parents wanted to deal with), but I was shocked by this little ball of energy and her intelligence. Within three days of being in the house she was house broken and would respond to verbal and hand commands, (and she was maybe two months old at the time). Today she's about a year and a half old, and (as I understand it from reading) still exhibits some puppy'ish behavior, but has become a stalwart part of the family. Easy going, but energetic; playful and affectionate, friendly, but quickly protective when she feels anyone in the family is threatened, I am continually impressed. She has those eyes and eyebrows that show expression and clearly convey when the gears are turning. This dog is just plain flat out smart.
I'm no trainer and have no real experience with dogs (horses yes, dogs...no), but she has been fairly easy to train in basic commands ("sit", "laydown", "bed", "room" (crating command), etc.). She also was easily trained in hand signals. When I was training her in basic commands, in addition to voice commands, I'd always perform a hand signal. She latched on to the hand signals, just like the voice commands. Now, I just snap my fingers and point down for sit, flat hand/palm down for lay down, quick slap to the back of my leg for heel, etc.. Again, amazed and how quickly she picked it up (I really only had to walk her through the commands a handful of times before she grasped the concept). She does display the need for an easy hand (from my reading this is common of this breed?) when disciplining, and I can tell when she thinks/knows she's in trouble. I've never had to physically discipline her, as a stern voice is usually all that is required (though she does try to push the boundaries of the commands quite often). I hesitate to be more forceful in discipline, as I don't want a brow beat dog. For example, when given the command "bed", she'll go over to her bed and get up on it and lay down (usually this is done while we're eating dinner). Sometimes she'll begin to low crawl out of the bed, and around the base of the furniture to peak her head around, to watch us eat (her form of begging I'd guess). Most times I don't even have to give a command, I just give her a hard stare, and she gets up and goes back to her bed (like I said, super smart). Other times, a simple "Sasha" in a firm tone accomplished the same thing.
As to aggressiveness, I think she is just starting to show signs of it, but it is usually in response to a threat. We have a neighbor that is, quite honestly, a douche bag at times. I looked out in the back yard one day, and saw Sasha standing there, hackles up, teeth bared and she barked, once, and loud (she hardly ever makes a sound other than soft whines). I quietly opened the door to investigate, and I noticed two things. One, she knew I was there but never took her eyes off the neighbor (as I walked out, I saw one of her ears point my way, she shifted her back to me, and her ear went back forward towards douche bag). Two, the neighbor was taunting her by pushing his head through the hedge row between our houses. Sasha was not happy, and I don't think douche bag realized how close he was to having a 50lb ball of teeth and claws leave the launch pad for an in flight assault. At any rate, I gave her the heel command and she quickly came back to me, circled and continued to face the perceived threat, low growling with some soft whines. Again, I was very impressed, and so was douche bag, who immediately realized I had seen what he was doing, and promptly disappeared from the hedge row.
I'm not sure where I was intending to go with this post, other than to convey my experience with Sasha, and the degree of awe I have for her breeding and personality. She is pretty energetic, and does require a lot of attention/stimulation, but we haven't experienced any problems/bad habits from her. For those of you who do train this breed, I'd be interested in and appreciate any comments you might have.
