Crate Training a Maltese Puppy

A crate is the quickest route to a housebroken puppy and a puppy that can be left for an hour without taking the house apart. It only works if the puppy thinks of the crate as its own bed, and it only thinks that if the crate is introduced the right way round: as a good place first, and a door second. This is how we do it with every puppy we keep. It takes about two weeks and it is mostly a matter of not rushing.

Before the puppy arrives

Set the crate up in the room where the family spends its evenings, with the door propped open and a soft towel or a piece of fleece inside. Nothing expensive; a puppy chews bedding. Put a safe chew toy in it. If you are using a pen as well, the crate goes inside the pen with the door open so the puppy can choose it.

Day one: an open door

Let the puppy find the crate itself. Drop a few pieces of kibble just inside, then further in, and say nothing. Feed the first meals in the doorway, then inside with the door open. By the end of the first day most puppies have been in and out dozens of times and have had a nap in it. Do not shut the door yet. Do not push the puppy in. Do not use the crate for anything the puppy could dislike.

Days two and three: the door

With the puppy inside and busy with its chew, close the door for a minute, sit beside the crate, then open it before the puppy objects. Repeat through the day, a little longer each time, still in the room. Then start leaving the room for a minute and coming back. The puppy learns that the door closes and opens again, and that you leave and come back, which is the whole lesson.

The first night

Last thing: out to relieve itself, then into the crate beside your bed, with its chew and a blanket from the litter if you have one. A puppy will usually cry for a while the first night or two. It is crying for the litter, not for freedom, and your hand on the crate and a quiet voice help more than taking it out, which teaches it that crying opens doors. A twelve week old puppy may genuinely need one trip outside in the small hours; take it out without fuss, no play, straight back in. Within a few nights most Maltese puppies sleep through, and by the second week the crate is where they go on their own at bedtime.

Week one: building the day

Crate the puppy for naps, for the fifteen minutes after a meal while you clear up, and whenever you cannot watch it, always with a chew, and always after it has been outside. Take the collar off first; a collar catches in a crate. Half an hour, then an hour, then two. Let it out when it is quiet, not when it is crying, and take it straight outside when it comes out. Every time it relieves itself outside it earns some free time in the house with you. That rhythm, out, crate, out, play, crate, is housebreaking, and the housebreaking page has the schedule.

Week two: leaving the house

Short absences first, ten minutes, then half an hour, then an hour, with no fuss on leaving or returning. A puppy under four months should not be crated more than two or three hours in the day, and a Maltese needs food available often enough that long crating is not an option anyway. If you work full days, the crate is for nights and short absences, and a pen with a pad is for the working day; the crate and pen page explains the setup.

When it goes wrong

A puppy that panics in the crate, drools, soils itself or injures its mouth trying to get out is not stubborn; it has been frightened, usually by being shut in too soon or for too long, and you go back to day one. A puppy that soils the crate is being left too long or has a stomach upset. A puppy that cries and stops when you leave the room is fine. Never use the crate as a punishment, never shout at a puppy in it, and never let a child open it. It is the puppy's room, and once it believes that, it will use it for the rest of its life.