The most important thing your puppy needs is love. Maltese Dog thrive on love and attention. The more you are around it, the more you will know what your puppy’s needs are. You will know your puppy’s moods and body changes and can adapt food, water, environment, etc. to this.
It is important to find a good brand of dog food. We use Purina ONE Lamb with rice. We use the puppy formula for the first two years and the adult formula after this. We do not recommend changing the dogs diet. This is also the recommendation of Purina. Changes to diet can have an affect on the dog’s coat, bowel movements, etc. Feed food dry with water on the side. Do not overfeed your Maltese dog. Maltese Puppies should be feed twice to three times a day. The recommended amount is ¼ to ½ cup per day for puppies and ¾ to 1 cup per day for adults. Adults can be feed once per day. Your dog should eat all of its food when it is served. If not, it is being feed too much or there is something wrong. Feed enough food to satisfy, but keep you Maltese dog lean looking.
Once your Maltese dog has eaten, it will want to go to the bathroom so this is the time to let it out to go or to it’s designated place to relive itself. This is a training exercise. Do the same thing each time you feed your dog and it will soon be trained to go the bathroom only at these times. Do not feed your dog from the table or table scraps. This can upset your dog’s digestive system and my cause long-term health problems if table food is consistently feed. Offer your dog water at meals, in the morning and afternoon. You may keep fresh water
available to adult Maltese dogs at all the time if your dog is outside.
Keep your Maltese dog on a daily regiment. As with humans, your dog will enjoy a daily regiment. This is relaxing as the dog knows what to expect and when. A suggested regiment is:
1. Morning - Let your dog out of it’s room and allow it to go outside or designated area to go to the bathroom. Offer your dog water and if feeding twice per day or if this is your dogs once per day feeding time, feed and water your Maltese dog. Once feed, let your dog out to go to the bathroom. This is an important routine to get into.
2. During the day, your dog may run free with you home. We suggest that if you leave, put or tell your dog to go to their room (crate) and lock them in. This can also be done during the day to train your dog that this is where is should rest.
3. Afternoon - If you have been gone for awhile, let your dog out of it’s room to go to the bathroom. Follow morning feeding routine again. You should feed your Maltese dog no latter than 6:00 PM. Do not give food or water after 6:00 PM as this will provide ample time for your dog to go to the bathroom before going to bed.
4. Night - Put your Maltese dog to bed around the same time each night. Allow them to go to the bathroom before putting them to bed. Tell them to go to their room and shut the door. There is no need to cover the crate. Your dog may bark at first, but as with training a baby, you must sometimes ignore the crying until they are trained. Once trained, if your dog starts to whimper or bark, you will know that it wants something such as to go to the bathroom.
Maltese Puppies Crate Training
Enough cannot be said about the importance of crate training. Your Maltese puppy should be crate trained when you get it. The crate is called your dog’s room. Repeat the phrase “Go to your room” each time you put your dog in its crate. It will learn to go to its room when you say this each time. The crate becomes a secure place for your dog and where it can feel safe. Eventually, your dog may go to its crate just to take a nap because that is where it belongs. If you do this, when you go on a trip, you can take the crate with you along
with some of your Maltese dog’s favorite toys and it will feel at home.
An additional word about your Maltese: Maltese almost seem to be Closter phobic when their master (you) is out of site unless they are in their room. If you lock them in a room, they will dig to try and get out. They will dig through carpet, vinyl, wood flooring, etc to get to you. If you wish to shut them in a room or partition rooms off, use a see through gates so they can see out. This helps a lot.
Maltese Dog Grooming
Bathing
Comb out the coat before and after giving the Maltese dog a bath. Use a good Flea and Tick shampoo to ensure protection from fleas and ticks. I also use Snowy Coat to keep their coats white. You can rinse with a crème rinse after shampooing. Brush the coat after your dog has dried. For a quick bath, brush cornstarch through the coat.
Brushing
Brush your Maltese dog as often as possible to keep mattes out of its hair, especially if you intend on letting the coat grow. There are gorgeous pictures of Maltese with long silky coats. This takes a lot of time and grooming. A “Maltese puppy cut” may be more efficient if you do not have a lot of time to spend. If not brushed often, matting of the coat can occur. This is a natural process and for dogs in the wild provides protection from heat, cold, fleas, ticks, and forms an ”armor” for protection. Mattes are most often found under the neck, legs, and on the hind legs where the dogs sit. Matting is caused from a combination of heat, moisture, and pressure. It is much like making a felt hat from hair.
All hair has tiny hooks on it that allow it to collect and interlace together forming a thick layer of hair. Felt makers have used the process of “kneading” hair together with heat and water to make felt. This is why your dog mattes up. If they do, you can cut through the mattes and pull them out, however, if matting is bad, it can leave your dog looking a little shabby. Not to worry though, the hair will grow back. Use a wire comb and brush for everywhere except the face. I use a baby plastic comb in this area. I also use a grooming spray (Pro Groom) while brushing.
Eye Care
Maltese tear a lot. You can avoid some of the tearstains by using distilled water to water the dogs. You may also use Crystal Eye tearstain remover for removing the stains. You can also use cornstarch to clean the stains (my preference).
Teeth Care
Small dogs tend to get plaque, so make sure they have a lot of teething bones and safe toys. Hard rubber bones work really well for them. Get tasty bones to crunch up to eat. This helps to clean their teeth. Purina One has one a really great one.
Apart from washing, use a good flea repellant such as Front-Line to keep fleas and tick away. There are also spray-on flea solutions that work good. Keeping your dog flea free will also keep you and your house flea free. They are not hard to control if you are persistent. Keep yearly or 6 month checkups with your veterinarian. A medical card is provided with your Maltese puppy to keep up with it’s medical history. Ensure you keep up with shots and medicines as recommended by your veterinarian.
Tags: Maltese, Maltese Dog, Maltese Puppy, Maltese Puppies, Maltese Dog Breed Info
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