We just adopted 12 year old Maltese - Help!

[Branislav]

Hello everybody. We just adopted a 12 years old mail Maltese this evening. He is now resting on our sofa and we are taking him to the vet tomorrow. We were told that he is a healthy dog, but we don't know for sure. I have couple of questions about this:

1. When he entered our house he peed in our kitchen. Is this normal when a dog changes the owner? I wonder if his bladder is OK at the age of 12. :)

2. He is not trained in anything, he does not sit when we tell him to sit, so the question is - is it possible to teach a Maltese simple instructions at the age of 12? Any book around on how to train Maltese?

3. How long they can live?

4. If anybody is in Northern Virginia area (Falls Church), could you please, recommed a veterinarian, and a groomer for Maltese.

5. Is it hard for a 12 year Maltese to adapt to a new house and new owner?

6.....

There are many other questions, but I will stop here. We neve rhad Maltese. My wife had a big dog 15 years ago, in an apartment. Maltese look fragile, so we would like to give this poor guy proper care.

Thank you for your help.

Branislav

[Chloeandj]

Welcome to the forum and congratulations to your new addition. What a wonderful thing for you to take in a maltese in need!

He may be marking. He may not be potty trained well or he may feel the need to mark his territory. It may get better or may not, it's hard to know at this point. If it continues, you may want to invest in a belly band (it's a little doggie diaper that wraps around their waist) for a while until he gets used to his surroundings and you can train him up a bit. I'm sure it is quite a shock for the little guy to adjust to new surroundings after 12 years. I adopted an 8 year old yorkie that took several months to become totally used to his surroundings. It just takes time and patience. I have heard of some maltese living to be 18, if he is healthy I think you can count on atleast a few more years with him.

[I Found Nemo]

Hi,
Congrats on your new addition! Welcome to MT:D
I think it would be extremely hard to train him at this point, he is 12 years old and God knows what he has been through:( I think you may need to see if you can train him with the puppyPads, if not a belly band is a good idea. You need to take him at the vet ASAP! You need to make sure he is okay and doesn't need any medical treatment. I think you should do a little reading up on the Maltese breed that will help alot:) Just enjoy him and the time you have with him, show him love and I hope you will have many happy years together.. Good luck to you both!!
Andrea

http://malteserescue.homestead.com/MaltShopPages/BellyBamds.html
http://www.metropets.org/YellowPages/Vets_VA.php

[Im26]

Welcome to MT :)
Glad to have another virginian among us :D
Crystal (Ladyjazz) could recommend a veterniary, she used to live in Alexandria not to far from falls church.
Groomers, you can try the falls church petsmart groomers, my friend takes her maltese there and perfers the falls church over the springfield one.

is your baby boy neutered?
If he is try to train him... im still trying to potty train my little ones and they have accidents several times, but i never tried to potty train an older one. GOOD LUCK :D
If he isnt neutered then maybe he is just marking?
Not really sure~ but the belly bands are a great idea :D lately i have been so busy with helping boyfriend move and settle in his new house i might have to put a belly band on one of my kids.

but welcome to the forum!

[Morkie4]

WELCOME TO MT BRANISLAV!!!

When you go to the vet, ask him some of those questions you listed and have the vet give him a thorough exam.

He may pee, to mark his new area or perhaps to cover over another scent of another dog/animal you may have had in the house.

I trained my dog at 10 years old (but I did have her as a puppy) a lot of new "tricks" like sit, stop, come, roll over, crawl, etc...........all when she was 10 yrs. old. Takes time and effort and lots of patience. I believe that any dog can adapt if given a lot of attention and positive reinforcement and lots and lots of love ............. and lots of patience!

Where did you get your boy from??? And what is his name? Oh and be sure to post some pics of your new furry friend.

[lilybellesmom]

:welcome: to Maltese Talk! I'm glad you're here. I think it's great you rescued that poor baby.

I'm sorry, I don't have much experience with with what you are going through. But, the members above have great, so try those and see what happens.

Good luck to you...

[lilybellesmom]

:welcome: to Maltese Talk! I'm glad you're here. I think it's great you rescued that poor baby.

I'm sorry, I don't have much experience with with what you are going through. But, the members above have great, so try those and see what happens.

Good luck to you...

~edit~I meant to say the members about have great advice. Sorry.

[Branislav]

Thank you to everybody who replied! This is a great place to be!

Our dog is not neutered, and we did have a cat a year ago, before she ran away, so maybe Casey (is his name) is just marking the territory. I will take him to the vet today and see what the vet says.

Falls Church Petsmart is close to us so we shall take him there. Do they have good vets in Petsmart? We are still deliberating which vet to choose?

Thank you very much.
Branislav

Welcome to MT :)
Glad to have another virginian among us :D
Crystal (Ladyjazz) could recommend a veterniary, she used to live in Alexandria not to far from falls church.
Groomers, you can try the falls church petsmart groomers, my friend takes her maltese there and perfers the falls church over the springfield one.

is your baby boy neutered?
If he is try to train him... im still trying to potty train my little ones and they have accidents several times, but i never tried to potty train an older one. GOOD LUCK :D
If he isnt neutered then maybe he is just marking?
Not really sure~ but the belly bands are a great idea :D lately i have been so busy with helping boyfriend move and settle in his new house i might have to put a belly band on one of my kids.

but welcome to the forum!

[Branislav]

Thank you for your answer.

We got the dog from Craig's list. The lady is expecting her second child, and she could no longer care for the dog. She said we should call her back if we realise we can not take care of the dog. So, she does care that her dog gets proper home. She gave it for free. He changed his environment sveral times to our knowledge - lived with the lady's mom, and her back and forth, in different cities. But, I think he was in one family since he was a puppy. I feel sorry for the poor dog that he was given away after 12 years.

His name is Casey. I will post some pics of him these days.

Thanks,
Branislav

WELCOME TO MT BRANISLAV!!!

When you go to the vet, ask him some of those questions you listed and have the vet give him a thorough exam.

He may pee, to mark his new area or perhaps to cover over another scent of another dog/animal you may have had in the house.

I trained my dog at 10 years old (but I did have her as a puppy) a lot of new "tricks" like sit, stop, come, roll over, crawl, etc...........all when she was 10 yrs. old. Takes time and effort and lots of patience. I believe that any dog can adapt if given a lot of attention and positive reinforcement and lots and lots of love ............. and lots of patience!

Where did you get your boy from??? And what is his name? Oh and be sure to post some pics of your new furry friend.

[I Found Nemo]

:) Hi,
Just wanted to say that I don't think any vet at this point would neuter him at the age of 12, it's to risky! Like Carol said positive reinforcement works the best!!
Andrea:goodluck:

[MalteseJane]

If he is in good health he can still be neutered. We had our late dachshund girl spayed at the age of 10 years old, and the lhasa neutered at 10 years old. The lhasa was diabetic, so you cannot even say he was in good health.

[Branislav]

Thanks for your replies.

We took our Casey to the vet today. Complete blood results will be known in couple of days. Apart from that it turned out that nothings wrong with our 12 year old Mr. Casey. All test came negative. The only problem he has are his teeths and gum. He got some antibiotics for that, and the vet will work on his teeths later. He also got a shot for rabbies. Alltogether, he is in a good health - so far. We scheduled him for grooming on Thursday, so he will come out from the groomer transformed from Mr. Hyde into Mr. Jekyll !

He seems to be adapting to us quickly and the same is with us. I will try to post couple of his pictures tonight.

He seems to have thin hair on his back, and the vet said he will try to figure out why.

Regards,
Branislav and Dragana

[Morkie4]

Do keep us updated on your Casey..........we looked forward to seeing pics of him...........give us before and after grooming shots!!!! Would love to see that. Good the vet gave you a good report. I am sure you will enjoy him and he will give you much pleasure even at this ripe old age of 12.

[puppies2nv]

welcome to MT...great to hear you rescued Casey...keep us updated on the more you find out about him...

[Branislav]

I posted 4 pics of our 12 year old Casey in "My Maltese" topic.

But as of last night, I have a big question:

Where do your Maltese SLEEP????

We did not want him to sleep in our bedroom, so we left him in our study room the first night, with all his things, including food and water. We were told by the previous owner that he did not sleepin their bedroom, but in the kitchen. So, Casey barked and protested for about 15 minutes the first night and then accepted his new sleeping place. But last night (the second night with us) he barked, and barked, and barked, and at the end I had to go sleep in the study room, and only then he slept on his pillow on the floor.

He is following us everywhere in the house, and would like to be near us all the time, i.e. he would like to sleep in our bed.

I am thinking that vet visit frustrated him yesterday so he did not want to be alone, but do you have any advice about training a 12 year, affectionate dog to sleep alone, and leave our night bed for ourselves? :)

Thanks,
Branislav and Dragana

[I Found Nemo]

Maltese's dont like to be alone period. Nemo is the same way if he is alone he will cry, you can take his bed in your room and let him sleep there? I dont let Nemo in the bed with us either, some do.
Andrea

[Morkie4]

I'm a bad one to give advise in this area as we allow both our Yorkie and Maltese in our bed at night. We choose to allow them and they choose to sleep with us. We do have a KING size bed so there is plenty of room. They stay on the bed all night and on a very very rare occasion when they have to potty in the middle of the night, they let me know by giving me kisses..........so I feel it is a personal decision as to where you will allow Casey to sleep. If he can be in your bedroom on his own pillow on the floor and he is happy just to be in the same room with you........then why not!:D

[MaxJack'sMom]

Maltese are a true people dog. They do not like to be alone at all. Jack follows us everywhere. Just get used to it. As for the sleeping, we started Jack out in the crate in the bedroom with the crate door closed. When he got a little older and had no accidents in the crate or in the bedroom (which he never did!!) then the crate was left open in the bedroom with a gate in front of the bedroom door so he couldn't wander at night. He would go back and forth from crate to bed at night. Now we have the gate closing off the front room from the bedroom hall and he goes from one bedroom to another and lets us all have the pleasure of this company. We use steps for going up and down the beds.
Good luck.