# I surprised my wife



## jaredonline (Apr 13, 2010)

I surprised my wife on her birthday with a Maltese puppy last Friday. We named her Vivi. Short for Vivian. We are new to raising a dog. We have four boys so we've got that down, but the dog thing is very foreign to us. We have talked to friends, family and are reading books on house training and understanding the Maltese breed. Vivi is 12 weeks old. We have a crate that she sleeps in. The crate is confined to the laundry room. The room is sectioned off to reduce the amount of room she has to walk around in. We are putting her through a 7 day potty training program with intentions of having her do her business in the back yard. We are strict with her play time, feeding time and confinement time. It's hard work but we are committed to the program. My only complaint is the barking. She only barks when she is confined, however. The worst is at night. Last night her barking woke us up at 12am, 3am, 4am, and 6:30am. We just lay in bed holding our ears until she stops. We do not tend to her at all during the night.

First question: Is she too young to house train? Should we wait a few more weeks or continue the program until she's trained?

Second question: Will the barking at night continue and for how long? Should we change anything at night to help stop the barking throughout the night?

Third question: How are we doing? Any advice to new dog parents would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.


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## maltlovereileen (Jan 19, 2009)

Congrats on your new puppy... for starters I would personally move the crate to a family oriented area as she needs to be socialized. Dogs are pack animals and she will feel very lonely and sad in there. She is probably barking because she is lonely.


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## LJSquishy (Feb 27, 2008)

Congrats on your new puppy!

Potty training will take much longer than 7 days -- for an outdoor trained dog, it will take months and months for them to be reliable. I don't consider my Maltese fully trained until they are 1yr old. The key to no accidents is consistency.

Your Maltese is the perfect age to start working on potty training, but she may need to go potty in the middle of the night. The general rule of thumb for a younger dog is that they can hold their bladder for 1 hour per month of age plus one hour. So your 12 week old puppy can hold her bladder for 4 hours. Her barking at night should subside after a few days. Many of us while crate training actually place the crate next to our bed at night and it seems to calm them and keep them quiet. My two actually still sleep in their crates in our bedroom.


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## almitra (Apr 24, 2009)

Congratulations, Jared! We potty trained to outside only at 13 weeks (when we got Pepper). It took a grand total of 10 days to do it as I was off work at the time and could take her out every 20-30 mins, after playtime, naptime, meals, etc. Do not consider any dog under 6 mos as potty trained--AND it must have gone accident free for a minimum 30 days as well. Vet recommended feeding her thrice daily at that age also---blood sugar and all that.  Staying dry all night may be be touch & go for a few months yet, but picking up her water by 8 pm or so and making sure she goes outside to potty before bedtime will help set her up for success. You don't send a child you are potty training off to bed with a glass of water, so don't encourage fluid consumption near bedtime in your pup, either. As soon as self-control and capacity are gained with age, you can leave water out again as they will pace themselves.


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## llf060787 (Nov 19, 2007)

Our bitsy is 7 months old and although she's pretty consistent with using the pee pad, she still has accidents here and there. Be patient, they'll learn. Keep in mind that Maltese are very clingy dogs, they like companionship and being a puppy, they definately like lots of interaction with people. Think of it as a new baby, you wouldn't leave a new baby in the laundry room by itself would you?

Bitsy sleeps with us in our room. At first we brought her crate and put it on the nightstand. When she woke up in the middle of the night I would take her to the pee pad to do her business. She would normally wake up around 4:00 a.m. and this lasted about 2-3 weeks. After that she would go down for the night around 11:00 and would wake up aroud 6:00. She now sleeps on the bed between my husband and I.

We also uses a playpenn for her. She was confined to the kitchen with us when we were home and to the playpenn (with water, food, toys & pee pad) when she was home alone.

Congratulatins and Good Luck! Its great having a puppy around the house.


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## drclee (Jul 16, 2008)

Congrats on your new baby! How long is she in her crate every night? I think she's too young to hold her potty all night. 

I agree with the others who say to put her crate in your bedroom close enough so you can soothe her and she can smell you. She's probably barking because she's scared and lonely - where is the crate currently? I really hope you move it into your room.


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## jmm (Nov 23, 2004)

It sounds like you are off to a good start. She is at a fine age to begin potty training. 
I agree it may be easier to have the pup's crate in your room. Set your alarm to wake up in the middle of the night to take the pup out. Set it 5-10 minutes later every night. Eventually she'll be sleeping through the night. This way she doesn't wake you up and get into a habit. 
A really good book is Patricia McConnell's Puppy Primer...I highly recommend it
Welcome to Dogwise.com


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## The A Team (Dec 1, 2005)

If you live in a climate where it gets very cold in the winter, you might want to consider training on pee pee pads also. I started my pups out in a large exercise pen....with enough room to hold her bed, food&water bowls and a pee pee pad at the other end. oh, and some toys and something to chew on for teething. 

At night I've always had my pups sleep in my room. I have a baby's pack n play that's good for puppies - they're up off the floor, have plenty of room and can't escape. 

My malts use both outdoors or indoors (pee pee pads). In the summer, outdoors is more fun....and in the winter, the pads are much more inviting to them, LOL. 

Congratulations and good luck!


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## nekkidfish (Aug 25, 2009)

Congratulations on the new addition to your family!! I hope you all have many, many years together filled with lots of love and laughter.

Is there anything in the crate to comfort her? Like maybe a baby blanket from the breeder? If not, I'd suggest taking a shirt that you have worn, so that she can smell your scent. This will help sooth her.

Also, there is a plush bone shaped toy you can get that beats like a heart beat when you press the center. Poppy still goes to sleep with his heart beat toy, and he's 5 months old.

When Poppy first came here, I slept on the couch, with his crate on the coffee table in front of me for the first week. My hubby works a ton of hours, so I did this to get Poppy used to the crate, and so hubby wouldn't be wakened by any barking. After a week, Poppy had settled in enough that I then moved him to our bedroom with his crate on my bedside table.

If you know 'for sure' that she does not have to pee or pooh, and she barks, you can put your hand in the crate and try and sooth her. If you're not 100% sure that she's not barking because she has to potty, then take her out of her crate and take her to the potty pad (or outside when you get to that point.) Do not speak to her, other than quietly saying whatever your potty phrase is, while she's on the pad. After a few minutes, whether she goes or not, take her back to her crate and tell her "nite-nite" or whatever your sleep time phrase is.

If she continues to bark after 5 minutes, and again ... only if you're not sure if she might have to potty, after 5 minutes, get up and take her to the pad again, doing the same as above.

If you know for sure that she has pee'd and pooh'd, then you might have to go into ignore mode for a bit. JMM's rec. of the Puppy Primer book is excellent ... it is a great place to start with training ... and written in such a user-friendly way, that you can read it and work on things with the kids as well.

I came home with Poppy never having owned a dog that went potty in the house. I had always owned big dogs, and I thought I'd have him outside potty trained in no time. Problem was that he had never been on grass, so that was very foreign to him. So, we bought potty pads. He took to the pads quickly, but there were some accidents, mainly because we gave him too much freedom in the house when he was playing. He is still confined to our kitchen/eating area at 5 months, and only is allowed out in the house with us on a leash, so that we can make sure he has no accidents.

Once it got warm enough here, we started taking Poppy outside to explore. Every time he would potty outside, we would praise him to death. At 5 months, 2 weeks, Poppy is almost completely outdoor potty trained, but it is still our job to get him outside after playing, eating, etc.

You sound very committed which is fantastic. It won't happen overnight, but before you know it, all of your hard work will pay off, and you'll have a wonderful addition to your family.

HUGz! Jules


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## jaredonline (Apr 13, 2010)

We leave the crate door open so she can get out do her business at night on the surrounding pads in the confined area. The first night we locked her in and woke up to a messy crate and dog. Realized she couldn't hold it all night. I think what I will do is move the crate up to our bedroom at night and start taking her outside during the night to go potty.


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## theboyz (Jan 10, 2007)

Welcome to SM and congrats on Vivi. Hurry with pictures!!!!

I would put her in your room at night...we put the crate on our bed.
Good luck!


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## llf060787 (Nov 19, 2007)

jaredonline said:


> We leave the crate door open so she can get out do her business at night on the surrounding pads in the confined area. The first night we locked her in and woke up to a messy crate and dog. Realized she couldn't hold it all night. I think what I will do is move the crate up to our bedroom at night and start taking her outside during the night to go potty.


Sounds perfect. You'll get the hang of it in no time! Please post pictures when you get a chance. We at SM LOVE pictures:chili::chili:


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## bellasmummy (Apr 8, 2009)

congrats on your new baby


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## uniquelovdolce (Mar 10, 2010)

congrats on ur new baby, my baby slept with us the first two nites , on his bed in our room , but after that he has always slept in the kitchen gated w pee pads , toys n food n water , the first few days he would bark n then i guess he got used to it , he still sleeps there , and as soon as i wake up in the morning he is waiting anxiously for me .. its all routine.. please post pics soon . u will love sm!


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