Do you have a Maltese or are you thinking of fostering one soon? So, to offer the best to your pet, you will be interested in knowing everything it needs in detail. Some of the most relevant aspects that must be known well are care and basic needs, but also how to teach everything you need to know so that you can live together enjoying your company to the fullest.

So, if you are interested in knowing how to educate Maltese so that you both are happy living together, do not miss this OneHOWTO article in which we tell you all the necessary details so that you can give your furry the best.

Characteristics of the Maltese

The Maltese is a small breed or even a toy dog since a weight of 1.8 kg is the minimum that usually occurs in toys and the maximum that is seen in small breeds is 4 kg, being the most usual weight between 3 and 4 kg. In addition, its height is between 20 and 25 cm at the withers. As usual, females are usually somewhat smaller than males, both in weight and height.

Its coat is white and smooth, it grows very easily and has a silky touch, although when they are puppies or if they are cut a lot, the hair can look somewhat wavy and not straight. Some specimens have white fur with some soft golden spots. Its eyes are always dark, like its nose, which is always black, its legs are short, its tail is dense, and its ears are long and fall to the sides.

These furry ones are characterized by being fun, affectionate, playful, happy, intelligent and enjoying the company of both people and other pets, in fact, they hate being alone. In addition, these characters are very marked when they are puppies but as adults they also retain these very positive characteristics, being the joy at home throughout their lives.

Likewise, they are nervous, very vigilant, and have a lot of energy, for this reason, they do not like to be alone and locked up at home for hours, in addition, they can notify us of the presence of someone unknown.

For all this, it is a very popular dog among families around the world. But we must bear in mind that it is suitable for living with adults, but it tends to get stressed in the company of children who demand too much play from it, touch or hold it continuously, pull its long fur, etc. For this reason, a Maltese can get tired of being in the company of a child in a short time, but if the little ones are also educated and explained how to relate to a dog, then there doesn’t have to be any kind of problem.

Why socialization is important

It is vital to socialize a dog so that it can interact with its environment, other animals, and people without any problem. If we do not get used to living both at home and on the street with other living beings and with common noises and situations, our pet will suffer stress, anxiety, and fear and may even become aggressive on certain occasions.

As we have pointed out, children must be used especially to be with whom they may have more difficulties when living together. Therefore, we must educate both so that they treat each other with respect and enjoy themselves. It is very important that, for this social education to give good and solid results, the dog gets used to it and is taught everything necessary during the first months of life, since at that moment its character and its way of understanding things will be forming.

Likewise, they must be accustomed from a young age to interacting with other dogs of all sizes, since due to their small size they can see other larger furry ones as a potential threat and become defensive or even attack if they have not gotten used to it. they.

Necessary standards and limits

To train and educate a Maltese dog correctly, it is very necessary to teach him rules and limits that serve to respect each other. In addition, you have to start teaching these guidelines from the first moment he enters the family, help him understand them, and teach them with positive reinforcement. All family members must agree on what rules to set regarding what the dog can do and what not, being consistent is what will help you understand it well.

Also, a common mistake is that being so small, we tend to hold them a lot or allow them to climb where they want, but if this becomes a habit, it can trigger a dominant attitude on the part of our furry. This will mean that when someone does something that does not seem right to him for whatever reason, he will impose himself by barking and even marking. For this reason, it is important to avoid over-pampering him and to teach him the boundaries between the things he can and cannot do and when he can do them.

Within the rules there must be established routines and schedules, that is, hours and areas for walking, sleeping, eating, etc. In this way, educating our Maltese will be easier and it will be more balanced and happy.

In this other OneHOWTO article, you will be able to find out all the details about how to teach your dog to relieve himself outside the home.

correct bad habits

It is very common for our pet to have a behavior or habit that we do not like, and this happens to a greater extent if it has not been socialized and educated well since it was a puppy. Thus, we must correct this unwanted behavior as soon as we detect it, but it is vital that we do it with positive conditioning or reinforcement and never with negativity or aggressiveness.

The screams, the pulls, the blows, and the punishments do not contribute anything good to your relationship and the learning of the dog. On the other hand, rewarding good and desired behaviors, whether with caresses, words, or food, is something that always produces a good reaction and helps to learn better.

For this reason, if your furry does not comply with something that it is supposed to already know, do not punish him and ignore this behavior or stop the activity you are doing, such as stop playing or walking, if he bites hard or pulls on the leash until he calms down or stops doing what you were doing wrong. Thus, he will understand more easily that what he does is not desirable and by rewarding him when he does things well, for example when he walks by your side without pulling hard, he will see that those are desirable and he will do them instead of the others that do not contribute to him. positive results.

Basic commands for a Maltese puppy

To educate a Maltese dog well, it is essential to teach him some tricks and commands, some more complicated and others simpler, so that he feels fulfilled, and useful in the family group or herd and thus creates a more intense bond with us.

As this canine breed is very intelligent, it is easy for him to learn new things as long as we spend some time teaching him well. If we teach them these commands or tricks they will feel more balanced and develop well, they will also get less bored. Here are some basic tricks and commands that this breed will pick up quickly:

Come here

Be quiet

lie down or lie down

walk next door

bring the ball

Advanced commands for a Maltese puppy

When your little pet has learned the most basic things, it’s time to teach him some more complicated things so that he continues to develop his abilities and feel better. As we have said, thanks to their intelligence, these little ones do not have a hard time learning the following advanced commands :

Spin around

Stand up on your hind legs

Skip

give a paw or both

roll over itself

Playing the dead

Bring the toy or object that we indicate

jump obstacles.

It is possible that at some point you have seen yourself in a situation where your dog ignores you and disobeys your orders. This situation can become very frustrating and desperate. Disobedience can have different levels and appear in different contexts. To help you solve this problem, we show you how to get your dog to listen to you.

Why doesn’t your dog listen to you?

The education and training of dogs in their early stages of life are very important since they will largely prevent behavior problems in the future. On many occasions, dogs disobey orders and behave badly, becoming a frustrating situation for the owners. At this point, it is normal for you to ask yourself: “why does my dog ​​not listen to me?” Here are some of the possible reasons:

Lack of training or education: sometimes, inexperience or ignorance means that proper behavior patterns are not established in dogs. Difficult situations may arise during learning: reinforcement of unwanted behaviors, trying to go faster than the animal can assimilate, lack of patience, etc. Therefore, you must train and prepare for these moments.

Age: it is important to take this factor into account because you do not learn in the same way at all stages of development, nor can you demand the same level from all dogs.

Problems interpreting commands: dogs often ignore commands because they don’t interpret them as such. It is important that your verbal and non-verbal language reflects the same message and that it is consistent with the order you want to convey.

Problems in the affective bond: having a dog at home as a companion is much more than covering its basic needs. You have to establish a solid and trusting affective bond if you want your dog to listen to you.

Use of punishment: dogs, as they grow, learn to relate to the environment around them. It is common for them to do things they don’t like and make mistakes because they are learning. In these situations, it is normal for you to raise your voice and scold him. However, punishment cannot be the basis of learning.  It is much more effective and rewarding to use positive reinforcement.

Very demanding standards: one must not forget that dogs are very different from people, they learn and process differently. It is important to understand this and accept that they also have their needs and need a certain level of freedom. Just like when a person sees something that they like or catches their attention, they stop to look at it, a dog needs to stop to sniff, play, run around, etc.

You don’t like the reinforcements used: the reinforcements are very stimulating to increase the appropriate behaviors. However, it is important to use a booster that the animal likes. Find what he likes the most: sausages, trinkets, etc.

An environment with many distractions: if there are many distracting elements in the environment, the animal’s ability to obey decreases.

How to make your dog listen to you? keys

become a leader

Dogs are pack animals and need a leader. You must become their leader with respect and trust. You must show him that he can trust you and that you can protect him and resolve complicated situations.

In this way, he will trust that the decisions you make and the things you ask of him are the best for him, and your dog is much more likely to listen to you.

grab their attention

For your dog to obey you, it is important that you first have his attention. To do this, you can teach him a command that shows him that it is time to direct his attention to you. Try picking up a treat, putting it in your hand, and holding it close to your eyes while giving the command. It can be: “look!”, “pay attention!”, or the one you like the most.

Improve communication

Dogs do not innately understand the words you use but are guided by the tone of voice and nonverbal behavior. Therefore, you must take care of these factors when showing an order.

On the other hand, it is convenient that you do not use his name to scold him or indicate that the game or the walk is over, because it will associate it with something negative and you will not get your dog to pay attention to you.

Set clear rules

Choose the rules and regulations you want your friend to learn and then show them the commands clearly and consistently. You must maintain coherent guidelines about his behavior so that learning is consolidated.

You can apply different exercises and turn the training into games to make it more stimulating. This step takes time and should be practiced daily. Sometimes you have to spend weeks or months on it.

There are not many people who feed Labradors as pets now, but Labradors are often used as police dogs. Its sense of smell is very sensitive, so how to train Labradors to smell? In fact, the method is very simple, that is, through fixed commands, and then use the way of induction to training it, as long as the conditioned reflex is developed, the training is considered successful.

Labrador is cute, right? There are many people who raise this kind of dog now, but it also has another role to train as a police dog. It has a very sensitive sense of smell and is very powerful when looking for things. So how to train Labrador’s sense of smell dogs? Today we will introduce to you the way to train the dog to show up when raising a dog. Even if it is not as powerful as a police dog, it is still possible to find something.

1. Smell source training

If you want Labrador to find something by smell, you need to let it know what the source of the smell is and what to do it. At the very beginning, you can take a smelly thing and tell it to sniff, and at the same time match it with a fixed gesture. Of course, when doing this step, let it fully understand what you mean, and let it be excited about this taste. When training, you can use the method of induction to training.

Put a few things it doesn’t touch often in different positions, then lead it to one of the items and say the command of sniffing, and give rewards after it responds accordingly. Of course, this training process requires repeated training of.

2. Find objects by smell

After he has mastered the password and gestures of sniffing, he can start the next stage of training. Find a few clean things that don’t have any smell like what he is looking for as ingredients, and then use the items that trainers often use Start training, the distance from the sniffing source should not be too far, and then give it a sniffing command to lure it to find something, and say hello or other rewards when it finds the corresponding thing.

After finding the item, the trainer can ask him to pick it up, and he can be rewarded after picking it up. Of course, this training process also requires repeated training, and the training can be completed if it reaches the conditioned reflex.

The above is the relevant content of how to train the Labrador’s sense of smell that I told you about today. This kind of dog’s sense of smell is very sensitive, so it is often trained as a police dog to find people or things. Of course, The training process is relatively cumbersome, and the trainer needs to have enough patience during this process. Of course, if it is not used for police use, but only for daily use, then the requirements for training are not so strict.