Are Malshis smart?

Yes, Malshis are very smart. WookiDog has taught herself a few different ways to communicate with us and yes we have also taught her one or two tricks as well. The interesting side of this is that she uses objects to communicate with us and to express her feelings. Now she’s definitely not the smartest dog but there has to be a fairly high level of intelligence going on for her to have invented a way to communicate with humans (other than barking).

Another very interesting behavior Wookie commonly displays is mimicking other dogs, which has to also show a fairly high level of intelligence. A good example of this was at the beach, our Malshi Wookie was watching another dog running in circles around its owner while jumping every few steps. WookiDogs head was tilted as she watched, she was really studying what the other dog was doing. And then she decided to start practicing, she proceeded to copy the behavior, exactly like the other dog. But then she stopped after only a few laps and continued to study the behavior a bit more with the head tilted, just to make sure she was doing it correctly and then restarted. Afterward, she looked up at me with a big smile.

WookiDogs toys:

Scooby – Wookie solely uses the Scooby toy for fun. If she wants to play she will run off and bring back Scooby.

Chase – Most mornings and afternoons I end up with a soggy Chase being pushed against my ankle. This is Wookies way of asking for a full meal, sometimes if we are near the dog bowl she will drop Chase into the food bowl. I’m not sure why but she pre chews Chase for a bit before presenting lol

Harold – Now missing for a week or two and WookiDog isn’t happy. Wookie uses Harold to express a range of feelings. Most commonly, she parades around outside the windows running along the deck at night if she doesn’t like dinner. Firstly she might drop Harold on my lap and stare me down for a bit and if I don’t get up to change the food then off she goes for the night time protest. She also displays a nurturing behavior with Harold, she often lays down and grooms Harold. But the funnier one to see is when she’s really happy, she lays on her back and holds up Harold in the air.

Are Malshis easy to train?

Pressing a Button for treats was taught by us, definitely not self-taught. If WookiDog wants a treat she presses the button which triggers pre-recorded audio (TREAT). She picked this up faster than expected, on the first day of training she pressed the button and expected the treat as payment. This highlights that yes Malshis are easy to train, they are a bit stubborn but also very greedy so training a Malshi with the aid of treats is easy.

I’ll try to film her with the toys but its normally inside behavior and hard to get a clear recording.

Wookie is a cute Maltese Shih Tzu mix, the small dog bread is also known as Malshi dogs. She’s not overly trained as in we haven’t trained her to perform hundreds of dog tricks but she is intelligent. Any pet or animal that can develop its own way to communicate with us humans must be very smart.