Mal-shi

Breed Rating

Breed Details

General

Mal-shi is a hybrid or a designer breed dog that is produced from the combination of a Maltese and Shih Tzu. Considerably, it inherits the desired characteristic of both breeds. As a result, an entertaining,intelligent and favorable house pet is born.

Color

The color of a Malshi is a bit playful as it usually appears in combination. Colors that may emerge includes brown, black, caramel grey and white. The last color is actually an attribute of the Maltese and the others are from the Shih-Tzu. Colors may also change as they grow like a white puppy may eventually have a brown coat as they age.

Coat

Most of the time, the coat of the Malshi is more similar to that of a Shi-Tzu. In which it has less undercoat or none at all. Another characteristic of a Shih-Tzu that is evident in this breed is their ability to lose its hair as they progress just like humans and not shed off just like most of the breeds do.The style of the coat is usually center part and top knot or if not, it is trimmed thrice a year to make it look like a young puppy still.

Personality

The personality of Mal-Shi is very attractive to most pet lovers especially to the children because of their being playful and sociable in nature. They are typically in good relations with other animals and people as long as they are exposed to them early. They also have an impressive intellectual ability that makes them easier to train and to be with at home.

Care

In giving care, health takes a priority. Although, they are commonly healthy, they are more prone to eye and sometimes tooth problems. Therefore, the owner has to observe cleanliness of their faces and eyes through careful washing. For the teeth, regular brushing and giving them dental sticks are to be observed to minimize tooth diseases. The meal feeding of the puppy is ideally three times per day and twice in adult.

Training

The intellectual ability of this breed makes training an easy task. Although punctuality and persistence are needed still in the house training as it may become more challenging when started late. For some puppies that do not like outside training, puppy pads are known to be beneficial.

Activity

This energetic dog necessitates a lot of action to satisfy their nature. This includes going for a daily walk mixed with playful games that requires running and chewing. But such activity requires the sensitivity of the owner because this dog tends to have a greater desire to move compared to its physical endurance. So, if you notice a white froth that appears around its mouth, then you have to slow the activity to its stop because it is a sign of exhaustion. On the other hand, if these activities are not done, the dog has the tendency to be lazy, depressed and destructive.