YvonneM

Nacho is adorable too! He is very cleve - I can't get Banjo to do tricks yet but we have had our second puppy preschool session last Saturday and he is going okay. He does "sit" nicely andmif there is a treat involved and its not delivered quick enough he promptly gets back up and sits again LOL! It's so cute. Glad I am not the only one with toileting issues - Banjo was pretty much house trained using pee pads because that is what his breeder used, so I continued so as to not confuse him - we had one inside the house (family room) and one outside. He pretty much used the, both reliably so a week or so ago we removed the indoor one and now he intermittently uses the outdoor one for wees but seems to prefer the tiled bathroom floor, bath mat or near the front door. Luckily he chooses easily cleaned surfaces. He is reliable for poos and always uses either the grass or his outdoor pee pad. I am thinking that I might put the indoor pee pad back and see if that makes a difference - perhaps I took it away too soon. Dory - I had wondered if it was the colder weather now here in Sydney but its only wees we are having a problem with so not sure. Cassie - we have actually lost Banjo once or twice - when he decided to take a nap behind the corner couch where I store extra cushions - snuggled under there and fast asleep ( and teeny tiny at the time) we couldn't find him until hubby saw a fluffy tail sticking out from under the cushions!!! We quickly blocked off access to small spaces!!

I wouldn't think so Melina - Banjo didn't reallynstartnthe whole tugging of toys,thing until he was 9 ish weeks old - and even then only gently because he still didn't have all his teeth through then - so I imagine it was a bit harder for hold and tug. Does Louis have all his teeth yet?

He was about 150g at birth - not sure at 8 weeks because I didn't think to weigh him then but have the last couple of weeks. At 12 weeks he was 1780g. I am told that full grown he shouldn't exceed 3.5 - 4kg. My last little fellow was a Maltese cross and he was about 5kg. How is you housetraining going? We went forward in leaps and bounds but the last few days have gone backwards - not sure what I am doing wrong .....

LOL - yeah, there's a certain amount of cute factor there which is probably why he gets away with waaaaay too much! I can't believe how much he has grown in the 5 weeks we have had him though. How much does Louis weigh? He must have been tiny!

Okay - I'm here - thanks for the push Melina Those baby puppies look adorable .... Louis is just so cute and Tank is adorable - I love his face! Not sure if too many people know me, so a quick intro - I'm Yvonne - baby Banjo is a Maltese and is 13 weeks this Thursday - we've had him since 8 weeks (picked him up Anzac Day. We are having the usual puppy settling in issues, so it has been interesting to read through some of this thread ..... I don't feel so alone now :laugh:

Hi there Smashtank - we play lots of games with Banjo - they include some tug games and plenty of "chase the ball" games, but as he is a Maltese and sooo close to the ground I think he just finds feet and pants easy to reach. Since the weekend's spray bottle episode we have put the spray bottle up and are using much more redirection and lots of praise when this is followed. I so want to come over and join you in the other puppy thread .... Tank looks just so adorable!!!

Thanks for checking back cosmolo - banjo seems to have recovered with no ill effects! He was definitely frightened by his experience with the spray bottle - I found him hiding behind the toilet in the bathroom at one stage last night and he later pushed himself right up into the back corner of his soft sided crate and refused to come out for the rest of the night - he was not interested in any of his toys or food of any description but this morning he was perfectly ok. I worried all night that I had created a fear. We have decided that we will not be using the spray bottle again but just using redirection and praise on successful redirection which today seems to be effective. I guess some techniques work for some dogs and not for others!

Thank you for speedy responses - he is hiding in the back of his crate and refuses to be tempted out with any of his favourite toys for a game or any treats either. Minimax - I've seen him sulk before and this seems different. Having never had a puppy before I really want to be doing the right thing by him and not creating problems for him - maybe it just seems worse than it actually is - and it's night time - things always seem worse at night

Am I over thinking this? Banjo is our 12 week old maltese and is going fantastic so far - but being so close to the ground is constantly at our feet. He bites our toes and feet and,pulls on the bottom of our jeans/pants etc. we have been trying to correct this with very firm NO and distracting him with toys - but we really want him to understand that no means no. We had our second session of puppy preschool this morning and our teacher was talking about this exact problem and said that an effective method of deterring puppies from the pulling on hems of jeans and jumping and biting feel/ankles is a spray bottle using the jet rather than mist spray. So tonight when he just was going into overdrive pulling etc and took absolutely no notice of NO i used the spray bottle and did as she suggested. His reaction was to immediately stop the pulling and biting. For the last hour or so I now have a puppy who is absolutely petrified of everything and is hiding in corners, behind things and in his crate - I am so upset that I have caused him to be so frightened of everything - he won't even come to us now. Is this a normal reaction? Did I do the wrong thing? Or am I overthinking the whole thing and he will be just fine? Right now I am really sorry that I took her advice and used the spray bottle.

There are lots of people here with plenty more experience than me in this area, but I will share what I have done. My Maltese pup is just 11 weeks - we picked him up at 8 weeks. When we visited our breeder when he was 5 weeks I took a soft toy and asked my breeder if she would allow the pups/mum to play with the toy and I would bring it home with me when we picked our pup up. She was happy to do this and said it was a good idea. I have a soft sided crate which is in our bedroom - it zips at the front. We had about 6-8 hours with our puppy before it was bedtime. We played in the bedroom near the crate, threw his toy that had spent time with his littermates etc in there and allowed him to chase it around ... I also bought a SnuggleSafe Heating pad (coz it's getting cold at night now!) Our pup was perfectly happy in his crate from night 1. I didn't close the door until it was time to sleep, he whimpered for a little bit then happily slept. There's lots of info out there, so I understand the overwhelming feeling of "am I doing it right", go with what feels right for you and your pup.

Another vote for pet plan - not that I have had to use them yet as I only took it up a couple of weeks ago and Banjo is just 11 weeks old so no need to use it yet. I went with them after reading several threads here about pet insurance and it seemed to be the most popular and those who have had to claim were very happy with how their claims had been processed - I really didn't do too much comparison. I pay about $50/month with a $100 excess. I've had 2 previous dogs and never had pet insurance before and never really had any major vet bills but this gives me peace of mind because I know that in the event of accident or serious illness the costs can run into many thousands of dollars very quickly. No cats here so can't make any suggestions in that department but hope you find a solution that works for you.

I was laughing so hard I had tears rolling down my face

Honestly, I'd not do anything that was drawing attention to the area, even negative attention. When my pups were babies and had accidents, I put them out of sight before I cleaned up so they didn't see me and therefor got no attention, even secondary attention, from their actions of toileting inside. Then I'd vinegar and play with them in another area until it dried and they forgot (yay for teeny pug attention spans!) and chances are they never went back to the same spot because they didn't get a benefit from it, as opposed to the party they got for going in the correct spot. Yep - I never clean up when he can see me doing it. Going to try the vinegar though .... sounds like it's a tried and tested method (not to mention a whole lot cheaper!)

Haven't heard of that one. I thought the idea was to eliminate the smell rather than provide one...I know 'stop chew' is a nasty smelling/tasting deterrent. I hope they didn't sell you that! It is definitely a spray to deter toileting in places where it is undesired. The spray bottle says to spray the surfaces every 12 hours until habits are broken .... so been doing that, but I think the best solution is going to be barricading the area off so that he simply can't get in there! Inconvenient for me, but rather that than having to clean up :laugh: I saw the Stop Chew stuff .... he's not doing any chewing of much stuff yet .... and being Maltese his mouth is too small to do much damage (yet) and he still doesn't have all his teeth through anyway! Perhaps a different story in a couple of weeks???

I'm finding this interesting ... currently working on house training our 10wk old Maltese. Not doing too bad for a baby, but he is preferring my loungeroom rug! I bought a spray bottle of "Stop" which was about $18 - petstore said they hate the smell of it so won't toilet where it is sprayed. Seems Banjo doesn't mind it Might give the vinegar a go!

Our puppy is almost 10 weeks and we have had him for almost 2 weeks. He sleeps in a soft sided crate which zips open at the front in our bedroom. He is zipped in at night and will continue to be zipped in until he can manage the doggy door to be able to let himself out at night. For the first few days he would wake us every 2-3 hours to go out, but now he is sleeping about 7 hours before waking. There are no pee pads in his crate - I was using the theory that he won't toilet in his bed so didn't put one in there. During the day he has the full run of our kitchen/family room area which is timber floors and he is using pee pads (intermittently!) He is letting himself in and out of the doggy door but hasn't connected the idea of going out on his own for toileting yet :laugh:

I have no need for them but just wanted to say that's very generous of you.

After my mishap yesterday (see bathing puppy in the puppy section of the forum) I was going to say puppy shampoo, but I see it's already on your list I had a good read of your list and although Banjo has been home for 5 days now I have picked up a couple of handy things from this thread. I also got Banjo's name/phone number tag before he came home.

Thank you ellz and Bjelkier - your advice is exactly what I needed.

Thanks again Jules. He's not unwell - I guess I am just a stressed first time puppy mumma! Haredown Whippets - the pen I have him in is reasonable in size with space for his bed, food, water and training pad and some toys. I guess I could pen him outside (in the same pen) however I am mindful of upsetting neighbours as I live in a residential area with the outdoor area that he would be penned in on the other side of the fence to my immediate neighbour's outdoor area. I would still need to put a training pad down in the pen though. During the day I have been taking him outside every hour or so and his toileting has been fine - it was just this morning's incident. He is going to be an indoor pet - with access 24/7 to outside via a doggy door which our previous pet used, once he is big enough to manage it. I thought as much about what you said about shampooing and doubted the petstore guy - just needed validation I guess! Between my husband and I we have a week off, but we both go back to work next week

Thanks Jules ... it wasn't so much a messy bum, his bum was quite clean itself, but it looks like he has poo'd on his training pad and then proceeded to walk/sit in it .... so all over his feet and legs. Even after washing him and drying him off with the hairdryer which he was quite happy with, he still smells a bit like poo. He is also looks miserable and has taken himself off to a corner and is sulking there!

I have a question about bathing puppy - picked up our little Maltese boy last Thursday and he has been really good so far with toileting etc but this morning I had to go out for about 3 hours and popped him in his pen with a puppy training pad only to come home to him covered in poo along with the training pad and his bedding. Not having thought about needing puppy shampoo before we brought him home and luckily having a really good pet store only 5 mins away I went out to get some. Man in the store sold me "Yours Drooly" Shear Magic Puppy Shampoo (soft and fluffy) and told me not to use it more than once per fortnight. What do I do if this happens again? What do I wash him with? Man in the store told me just to rinse him with warm water, but surely this wouldn't clean him up properly ..... would it? What is the best shampoo to use on puppies? How often is safe? I don't want to irritate or dry out his baby skin and coat.

Cassie - Banjo is a little Maltese.

Happy birthday to Trixie - what a beautiful photo - they all look so well mannered!

I don't have much useful information to offer for you, but wanted to say sorry to hear about your loss of your JRT. I just lost my little fellow in March and just yesterday picked up our new puppy, so on a steep learning curve. There are lots of people here with years of experience and lots of helpful advice.