I like Ridgebacks, I really do. Paul just feels they are a bit too big. And I am not sure I would like to deal with a hound to be honest. I prefer sharper dogs.
At the end of the day the choice is Pauls and it looks like we are leaning towards an Africanis.
RR's can be very sharp. Depends on where you get it I suppose because I've heard they are super mellow from people with showline ones, but my personal experience has been awesomely different.
My friend adopted a little ridgeless RR boy at the shelter. Pretty sure he's purebred, don't see anything else in him at all. He has amazing natural protection ability. I obedience trained him myself since we were roommates at the time.
One time he and I were out at an elementary school playground at night (he's an asshole to the other dogs so he is exercised on his own....) and we were playing tetherball, yes he plays tetherball lol, when I guess some creeper heard me chatting away to the dog and I saw this guy sneaking up out of the corner of my eye. I snatched his collar, yeah I'm idiot my first thought is that I don't want him getting in trouble for biting this moron. The guy sees I have a dog and runs like hell. I'm a little worried he might try to break into my car because I can't see it from where I am, so I let the Rhodie loose and walk on over there. Well he hauled ass to catch up with this guy and did a textbook perfect bark and hold. Not even joking. And when I whistled he recalled perfectly to my side. **** good dog.
He has lived with a weiner dog and a pug, but I wouldn't trust him with strange ones. Also, he much prefers to be an only dog. My friend already had a RR/Lab mix (he is also a very protective boy and very well behaved) when she adopted him and ended up letting her mom have the younger guy because he just needs to be an only dog.
Same sex aggression is very very common, but they bond wonderfully to their families. They are high prey drive, not sure I'd trust one around a pack of small dogs supervised. Definitely never unsupervised.
Also, I think a Terv from a good breeder could be good. But be careful, there is a lot of breeding that turns out nervy dogs going on out there. Ask lots and lots of questions of any breeder you chat with.
I know a trainer with Belgians (a Terv girl & a Groendal boy pup) and her Terv is a nervy hot mess. She has to be careful who she has her around. She's still trialed her high in agility though. She just got a pup from a very nice breeder in CA.... its an agility breeder mainly but some of their dogs/offspring do bitesports like French Ring and some herding also. Nice dogs.
Have you considered a nice West German working line GSD? A big black GSD would be the absolute best visual deterrant you could get. Once they know that lives there, they will not screw with your cars.
And working line GSD's are no slouches. I would never leave one unsupervised around small dogs, but in my experience they are capable of comprehending that small fuzzies (in my case my cat) belong to the humans and are not to be eaten. They will think before they act, whereas a Malinois (and some belgians if they are high drive enough) will not stop to think, but explode in drive instead. They can be very, very sharp too.