nice to see that there's a forum for Maltese owners here in LYN. here's my Snowy:

snowy is a female

hi there.

u managed to get ur dog to "sit" in 2 days? wow. my snowy nearly a week only managed to learn that, but at least she now sits and waits b4 i give her a treat or snack.

for heartguard, recommended to feed 1 month after 3rd vaccine.

i'm giving her those small biscuits/pellets (milk or something) that comes in one big container. those are easier for her to eat as it practically melts in her mouth. i also give her those "dental" snacks once in a while. other than that, no human food (chicken meat, etc.) for now....maybe only when she's older.

my snowy learned to pee and poo on the pad within the first week of getting her. now she only pees and poos on the pad, no matter where the pad is. (house, car, friend's house, outdoors, etc.). no problems with that.

only thing to do now is control her biting. she has many toys but she has already destroyed three with her biting. it's her teething stage now and she tends to bite everything, including my fingers, toes, carpet, newspaper, her cage, etc. but no destruction to my property so far (she ignores wires so far)....only her toys.

same here. my maltese loves to bite. even with so many toys to play with, she still tends to bite me or my wife. (not painful bite, but annoying...especially on toes).

if u guys find a solution, do let me know.

lol...,my Maltese girl is also called Snowy.

when ur dog is out of her cage, does she purposely go back to her cage to pee and poo or do u have to put her into the cage yourself?

my snowy is the other way round. she rarely pees or poos in the cage unless she cannot tahan anymore (i.e. i come back very late from work). she only pees and poos on the pad. if she's in another location and there's no pad available, she doesn't pee or poo at all until i place a pad on the floor. i work from 9am till 6pm, but mostly only reach home around 8pm. her cage is clean most of the time every time i come back...but once i let her out, she runs straight to the pad and lets her bladder go. (loads of pee, at least 10 seconds on the pad). i'm worried that this is unhealthy for her. i've never scolded her when she pees or poos in cage...so dunno why she dun like to do those in her cage.

i also find that my dog's some sort of a clean freak. if there are previous pee or poo stains on the pad. she will avoid it and do it on another part of the pad...sometimes until near the edge of the pad until some of the pee leaks out onto the floor. so i'm going through my pads quite fast (at least once a day)

i am currently feeding my Snowy Royal Canin Mini Junior 33 and she is alright with it. b4 that, she was eating Natural Balance Ultra Premium Small Breed Bites. she is on royal canin for more than a month already. now i have gotten her Orijen Puppy and she does not even want to touch it....not even when i mix it with her usual royal canin. worse now is she doesn't even want to touch her royal canin food again. for the past few days, she only eats her food (royal canin) when i am looking at her eating.

how to solve this problem??

p/s: the reason we changed her food is coz me and my wife read not-so-good things about royal canin. we should have just stuck with Natural Balance instead.

i've asked several pet stores as well as searched the internet and most say that RC is not that bad, but it's not healthy either. in fact, RC is kind of "addictive" to the dog as there are many ingredients in them such as corn, beet pulp and other grains that could harm your dog (e.g. allergies, etc.). i noticed my Snowy scratching herself more often after going on RC. it was much better when she was on NB. also, do u notice that RC has "specialised" food for different breeds, like RC for Shi Tzu, Chihuahua, Yorkshire Terrier and even Maltese? but a search through the internet suggest that these foods are no different from each other in terms of ingredients. it's just to fool owners like us into thinking that those dog foods are specially made for that specific breed of dog that we have. also, the smell and taste of RC is very strong and most dogs tend not to eat any other brands of food once they start on RC. that's why my Snowy is totally addicted to it and she doesn't even touch anything else...not even her old NB. that's how RC manages to get away with charging expensive prices for their food...coz the owners have no choice but to continue with RC coz their dogs like it. (that's what a few pet stores did tell me, even when they have RC on their store shelves for sale).

now i've started weaning her off RC and putting her back on NB Ultra Premium formula (cheaper than RC). she's resisting it but slowly eating coz she's hungry and has no other choice. then maybe after that i'll put her on grain-free Orijen instead or NB L.I.D. (both also cheaper than RC)

RC Mini Indoor Junior.

Some swear by RC, and i would believe them too coz my dog has no problems eating it. but looking at the ingredients and asking some pet stores around KL, they all say that RC is very "yummy" for dogs..coz the smell is very strong. they said that once the dog starts on RC, it's very hard to change their diet and that's why RC prices keep going up.

that's why i'm going back to Natural Balance...not the best dog food but much healthier than RC.