Accidental Malinois owner here! - Page 1

Hello everyone, I adopted a mix a couple years ago that seems to be a Cardigan Welsh Corgi / Belgian Malinois.  We adopted Lola from a rural animal hospital 80 miles southwest of Chicago, where she had been picked up as a very thin stray with no known history.  She had a number of behavioral issues that at first we thought were the result of abuse, but then we thought maybe her previous owners couldn't handle her temperament.  I spent last night reading a bunch of Malinois and GSD forums, and now our second hypothesis makes more sense than ever. Her "issues" that make her a difficult housepet probably make her an excellent (albeit short-legged) working Malinois, bred carefully and specifically to attack the crap out of people.

Here are her "issues":

~ People aggression. At first she would lunge after people passing us on the sidewalk and people who made eye contact, and she especially distrusted young men of color, groups of chatty people, tall men, and drunks / addicts / mentally ill / people in altered states of consciousness. After two years, LOTS of socialization, and moving to a new city, most people can now approach her and even pet her head. When she does bite she goes for clothing, not skin.

~ Doesn't growl before attacking. She completely freezes, then suddenly lunges, gives a warning bite or air snap to the face (this is people bending down to say hi and stare at her), and gives warning barks when we pull her away. Sometimes she'll let people pet her, then she'll snap and jump when they turn away. We manage this by trying to read her body language and keeping a tight hold on the leash when people want to meet her, then pulling her away if she snaps / jumps / barks. Not perfect, but it's difficult to judge who she'll tolerate, and we still want her to interact (this only happens when she's on the leash or in a home she guards). I don't know if this is a Mal thing, or if her previous owners "corrected" her and unwittingly trained her not to growl.

~ Fixates on fast moving things and is extremely sensitive to noise. We've gotten her desensitized to bikers and joggers, and we can mostly stop her from chasing after squirrels, but when she sees or hears skateboards and loud motorcycles she goes into a frenzy and relapses to lunging at bikers, joggers, and random passersby until she calms down.

~ She sounds the alarm whenever the doorbell rings or somebody knocks on our door - desired behavior on its own, but she'll try to attack if it's a stranger like the maintenance guy. We avoid this by putting her in another room until service guys leave. Guests give us a call, and we take her outside to meet them in a neutral spot.

I'm hoping that somebody with Mal experience can tell me if these are part of the typical working Mal temperament and we should be viewing them as permanent traits, and if you have any tips, books, websites, or other resources we can use to manage her behavior, or if we're already using the best methods we can. (In case anyone comes on saying "WTF did you expect?", we expected an apartment-sized corgi mix and had no idea Malinois even existed until months after we got her. We grew up with retrievers and lab mutts and never had to deal with aggressive dogs before.)

A little part of me also hopes one of the Illinois breeders, trainers, or owners can remember her litter, if the mom was the Mal. A Cardi corgi-Mal mix seems so unique, and I'd love to see what her littermates looked like and if they have similar temperaments.

Except for what sounds like a high prey drive (wanting to chase moving things) none of this is "part of the typical working Mal temperament".

She sounds fearful and nervous, hence the growling, attempted bites, over reaction to stimulus, etc.  I would strong recommend finding a good trainer in your area who can evaluate her and help you with both training and socialization programs.

 ..

She is so friggin CUTE!

that being said, what malndobe says is true.  None of what you describe is appropriate malinois behavior except for the prey drive.   Corgis have a decent amount of prey drive too. 

She sounds like a perfect case for Cesar Milan type behavior modification.

It's more likely that her behavior problems stem from inherited nervousness/fear issues
She may also have some "gunshyness"  or a fear reaction to loud noises. 
leashes can heighten a dog's reactiveness/aggression. 

Although a dog may be predisposed to act this way because of their faulty temperament, the manifestation of this kind of behavior is usually a direct result of how the dog's handler behaves and how the handler sets the environment.   If you expect that your dog will snap at someone because she's done it before then you will unconciously transmit that expectation (in a form of your own nervousness) to the dog and that alone will cause aggressive reactions by your dog. 
Essentially, changing your behavior and your expectations of the dog's will change hers. 

And giving her a job to do would be great for her, such as wearing a backpack.  Teach her to run on the treadmill if you have one, to help wear out her excess energy and be calmer. 

 

It might not be Mali behavior but it is Corgi behavior;  can be trouble with capital T.

I rescued an apparently full blood Mal about a year ago- early behaviour suggested confinement and abuse. In spite of all the trauma early in her life, has a very even temperament- and in fact is quite open and friendly to almost everbody, except of course rabbits and squirrels. One exception is that of people with cigarettes OR who smell strongly of tobacco. Our belief is that whoever had her before (and who beat her) may have been a heavy smoker. She doesn't go in for the kill, but will give the "bad guy" a stern warning. When she sees me address that person in a friendly manner, she calms down. My guess would be that she may have some "emotional baggage" from her previous environment, and that with patient and deliberate possitive interaction, she'll grow out of it.

Thanks everyone for your input! Guess she's just neurotic after all. :/

EuroShepherd, we've actually been using your methods since her issues first manifested.  For the first year or so we had to strike a balance between giving her enough slack to feel comfortable, yet keeping her close enough to prevent her from making contact when lunging at strangers.  Not easy - I gave her too much space, and my fiance didn't hide his nervousness and frustation well.  Switching from a retractable leash to a flat nylon leash a year ago helped immensely, as did moving to a city where we're constantly stopped by people who want to meet her.  (We're right next to a college campus, so there's lots of foot traffic.)  After daily, positive encounters with strangers on the street, she's learned that ignoring people or walking in the other direction is a much more productive way of dealing with unwanted attention.

You'd never believe it considering her breeding, but outside of her triggers she's a very calm, low energy dog. We could walk her 10 minutes or 3 hours, and she'll still just flop onto the couch when she gets home. And she thinks her backpack is some kind of cruel prank.