Maltese Puppies for Sale Near Me

Nearly everyone starts with "near me", and it is a reasonable instinct: you want to see the puppy, meet the breeder, and not spend a day in airports. The trouble is that the Maltese is a breed with a handful of serious breeders spread thinly across a large country, and the nearest listing is very often a broker, a pet shop or a backyard litter. Here is how to think about it, from a kennel in the New Orleans area that has placed puppies in most states since 1992.

What "near me" usually finds

Marketplace listings sorted by distance, and in a radius of fifty miles from most American towns that means sellers who bought their breeding stock from someone else's pet litter, who do not test, do not show, and do not keep a puppy past eight weeks because every week costs them money. Some of those puppies turn out fine. The buyer has no way to know which, because there is no record to check. A breeder who has bred one breed for thirty-four years, with every champion listed and every pedigree published, may be eight hundred miles away. The eight hundred miles is the cheap part.

How a puppy from here reaches you

Three ways, and you choose. Families within a day's drive of New Orleans, which covers Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, east Texas, Arkansas and the Florida panhandle, usually come and collect, meet the parents, and drive home with the puppy on a lap. For anywhere further, a flight nanny flies with the puppy in the aircraft cabin, in a carrier under the seat, and hands it to you at your home airport the same day; a puppy from here can be in California, New York or Washington by evening, having never left a person's sight. The third option is ground transport by a dedicated pet carrier, two to three days by road with updates along the way, which suits some routes and some seasons better. We do not ship a puppy as cargo in the hold, ever. Travel is quoted for your route and paid by you; the puppy is $600 wherever you are.

How to judge a breeder you cannot visit

Ask for a video call with the puppy and its mother in the room. Ask for the health test results on both parents by name, and look at them: for a Maltese that means patellar luxation, cardiac examination, a CAER eye examination and bile acids for liver shunt. Ask how old the puppy will be when it leaves; twelve weeks is right for this breed and eight is a sign of a seller in a hurry. Ask what happens if you cannot keep the dog. Look for a show record you can check against the AKC and the breed club, and a kennel that has been at the same address, in the same breed, for long enough to have a reputation to lose. Then compare the answers with whatever "near me" turned up, and decide.

Where our puppies have gone

Across the United States, over three decades, and to Britain, Japan, Korea, Italy and South America for show homes. The album is full of them. Far more of our pet puppies live out of state than in Louisiana, and that has been true since the start, because people who want a well-bred Maltese look for the breeder rather than the postcode.

Maltese puppies for sale by state

Each of these pages gives the road distance, the driving time and the flight from the New Orleans area to that state, which way of travelling suits it, and what catches buyers there out: Florida, Texas, Michigan, Ohio, California, Indiana, Arizona, Iowa, Illinois, Colorado, Oklahoma and Louisiana, the home state. Any other state works the same way; ask.

Available now

Two teacup-sized puppies, Cody and Callie, are looking for homes. Tell Angie where you are, on (856) 394-0451 or at divinemaltaol.gmail.com@gmail.com, and she will tell you how the puppy would travel to you and what that would cost. If you are close enough to drive, you are welcome to come and meet them.