More on Housetraining

We recently purchased a Maltese puppy. Pepper is 13 weeks old. He has been in the home now for 2 weeks. We have a crate for him, but feel guilty keeping him penned all the time. We've tried using a playpen (leftover from our children) for him to play in, but he has no problem urinating in there while he will not urinate in his crate. He has also had several accidents on the carpeting. I have now gone back to our original plan of keeping him in the crate for the majority of the time. I have completely eliminated the playpen. I take him outside first thing in the a.m., feed/water him, allow him some play time with the family (15-20 min as I fear for his "potty trainingi" accidents on my carpeting) & weather permitting he will run around outside for a short time. This pattern (i.e. outside, feeding, play etc). occurs approx every 3 hours during the day. My question is whether or not this is the proper way to house train him & is he being penned too much? I also like him in the crate to insure his safety from the children & chewing hazards while I do my housework etc. While the children are gentle and loving with him, I like to supervise them with him at all times.
Lydia

Help! We have a 7 week-old female Maltese that we adore. However, she is eliminating almost hourly at night.Our sleep is at a minimum.The last feeding is between 6:30-7:00 p.m. After her dinner, all food and water are taken up. We feed her three times daily, and only leave food down for fifteen minutes(she usually eats all of it). Any suggestions?
Garry Murphree

I have two malteses.. One is male, 1 1/2 yrs and 3 1/2 lbs. The other is female, 8 mo, 2 3/4 lbs. The male has been trained for a long time only on wee wee pads. The female is taking longer to train as I bought her at 8 months and she was trained outdoors.. I am re-training her on wee wee pads. My older male has accidents (#2) whenever and wherever. Cant figure it out cause he is totally housebroken. Its almost like he enjoys defying me. My female makes it quite nicely to the pads but when goes into any r I call these precious creatures DITZY cause they know better. I have heard that this is not uncommon among the breed. Anyone got a similar problem? Would like to hear from you. Thanks.
Pat

• Hmmm sounds like your dog might have the runs if it is going potty just about every hour. Have you the same dog food as the breeder or place where the pup came from?? If you are using a different brand of food she is not use to you will have problems until she gets adjusted to it. If you can find out what she was eating and gradually feed her what you want to switch with. You are doing ALL the right things by feeding 3 times a day, water/food up at night and giving her plenty of time to elimate outdoors. Just beware that it usually takes a full 5 months before a dog can physically hold itself for any length of time and asking your puppy to do so for more that 3 hours is nonsense! Keeping it in a crate to use with training is also helpful. Especially when you can not watch the dog 100% of the time. Only giving it acess to the room that you are in help this too.

  Having a puppy is almost like having a newborn! Patience and time will get you through this stage and then on to CHEWING!!! To keep her on the right path lots of socialization are in order for her meet new people, places and especially interact with other dogs BUT not until she is done with shots! Enroll her and your- self in puppy class and you should both enjoy and learn something as well. Best wishes,
  Pugish

• Dear Lydia: We had good luck with the crate and plan to use it again. I also took her out every hour and use the word "Piddle" and fused so much when she did it the neighbors said, "KoKo just went Piddle". She had accidents on the carpet but a good dog stain and smell remover worked terrific. She was not out of the crate if I could not be watching her every move. They have a walk they do before they go, you have to be quick. Do not give her more space until she has proven that she will not have accidents. I never used paper and will not use it again for my new puppy. There is a spay that makes them want to go, ask about it at your pet store.

  Patience, remember potty training the kids, this is easier and they learn faster. Reward good behaviour. Tell her when she is bad too, but tell her when she is good more often.

• I also have this problem, or rather my dog does. He knows better. Just when I think he's trained and I can leave him unsupervised, that's when he piddles on the carpet or in the kitchen or in the bathroom. I think it's his way of telling me something. I spend so much time grooming him and playing with him, I thought at first he was just getting spoiled and wanted all of my time. It goes in spurts, almost like he enjoys defying me too. These dogs are very smart and have a lot of character, whatever t he reason is, it's his reason and it's o.k with him.

My NiNi is having trouble housebreaking. We had tried to train him to use the restroom in a small open box with newspaper on the bottom but he won't use it. At first he did but then he stopped. He's only three months and is really smart. He can already do tricks. The only thing he won't do is housebreak. Usually when he has an accident and we catch him doing it we would pick him up and call him a bad NiNi and show him the box. He would just sit there with his puppy eyes or stratch the box. Yesterday he was chewing on a book and i shook my finger at him and called him a bad dog and don't chew and he just automatically went to the box. Does he think it's a punishment box? Is that why he won't use it to potty anymore? Is he still housetrainable?
Linda

• I use scented wee wee pads for my Sophie..7 months old. I had some luck using them from the beginning as long as she was confined to the kitchen. Whenever she had the run of the house, tho she would go wherever she happened to be when she had to go. Then I got some great advice which was so basic I am amazed that I hadn't done it before. For about 2 weeks straight I fed her at 2 precice times during the day. I left food & water down for 1/2 hr only. (I was actually advised 15 minutes, but it wasn't long enough for Sophie)I made sure she was confined to the kitchen with her pad til she went..usually within 15 minutes and always within the hour. I then let her go into the rest of the house but payed close attention & if she even looked like she had to go I whisked her back to the kitchen. She finally gets it & hasn't had an "accident" in several weeks! I hope this helps. BTW..the wee wee pad I use is scented & I only have to change it once a day as long as I clean her poop up whenever she does that. I feed her good quality food so it is firm, small and not smelly at all..although it is smellier when I mix wet food with dry instead of dry alone. After the 2 week trasining period I continue to leave food down onlt twicw a day..tho I leave an unlimited supply of fresh clean water all day.. I think limiting her originilly helped to regulate her.
  Terri Powell