Archived Message

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
by Susan Daddio

Hey everyone!! I am so glad to find a group of people like you on the web that have Malteses too. My Little boy's name is Mafia (Maffie for short) and he is 1 year and 5 months old. I know the name sounds strange but when I was a little girl I saw an interview with Marilyn Monroe and she had her little puppy Maltese with her (some accounts say that she had a poodle when in fact it was a Maltese. She had received this Maltese from Frank Sinatra as a gift and named it Mafia (and called it Maffie for short) and I decided that is what I wanted to do. Maffie is my life. I am 30 and single and he is my only child and I mean that in a human sense (As I'm sure you all understand). I have no problems with him except that he stil poops and pees in the house when I am not home. He never does it when I am here..in fact..he lets me know when he has to go out. But he can't seem to understand that when Mommy isn't home...he has to hold it. Other than that...he is a very very good son. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas...please let me know. I also would like to know from any of you out there if your Maltese ever donkey kicks you with his back leg when he wants to play? Maffie does that to everyone when he wants to play (including his stuffed animals) and I have no idea where he learned to do that. Please let me know what you guys think.Anyway...it's so nice to join this little group now and I am so glad I found you all.

DISCUSSION:

Susan, have you tried crating him when you are out? They usually won't go in the crate. I am helping out with Maltese Rescue in my area, and am soon to bring home a little boy as a "foster child" who hasn't been potty trained--he's 5, and no one ever even tried to train him. My job is to get him potty trained before we find him a permanent home. The woman who runs the rescue sent me a chapter from a book by Carol Benjamin (the book is called Dog Problems and if you want the whole thing it is $13.95 and available from 4M Enterprises, a company that specializes in all types of dog-related books, 1-800-487-9867) that has specific crate training instructions for the older dog that isn't trained. Her premise is that if a dog has accidents even once in awhile, unless it is sick, it is not truly housbroken and you should start the crate training all over again. Maybe you could give this a try.
-cathy brown

Glad you found the list. Sounds like your Maltese is wonderful. My dogs don't kick me, they come up to me when I am working and pull on my shirt, or bark at me until I stop what I am doing and give them attention. They will not take no for an answer.
-Marsha A.

Hi, its me again. Glad to hear your so excited. i feel the same way about my spikey. (5 months old) Heres a suggestion re: potty training that i've been reading and trying my self. if your babe is a year and a half he should not have a problem holding it until you come home. get a metal kennel and set it up with a little bed and toys. if he is put in there he will not mess in there. as soon as you get home take him out or to the place he normally goes. get a routine going. after a short while you should be able to leave him out of the kennel and he'll understand theres a time and a place. spike goes on paper and outside. at 5 months he has an accident once in a while but he knows wheres hes suppose to go.
-mtm

Thank you guys for your suggestions on housebreaking Maffie, but I have never crate trained him. I started paper training him when I first got him and then we moved it to yard training. My next question is then, will it bother him or make him made or disturbed with me if I start the crate training now? I know that he hates boxes and the little soft canvas puppy travel bag that I put him in on our moving trip from Fla. to L.A. a year ago, so I never put him in anything like that again. And I do mean that he deathly afraid of these things.
-Susan Daddio