[ilove_d&m]

As you may know I have 2 beautifull Maltese girls. Daezie 1.8 yr old and Maya 1.2 yr.

My husband and I play with both of them equally. but when we are on the bed or couch and we happen to play with Daezie, Maya right away goes to the end of the couch or the bed and makes the sadest face, like saying nobody loves me. and when I see her doing that I right away go play with Maya. I feel bad for her. She know we love her!

Its not just me that notice this. is also my husband. In the morning before he jumps in the shower he has a little play time with the girls and when he plays with Daezie firts Maya right way goes to the othe end of the bed puts her head down and and give him that 'nobody loves me' look.

Daezie is nothing like that. I guess she is very confident of our love for her.

Maya is the type of fur baby that is always next to me and I'am always given her more attention than Daezie (Daezie is very independable, when she wants attention she looks for it)

I was just wondering for those of you who have 2 or more fur babies. Do one of them do that? Do you notice a different face expression on one of them?
Should I just let it happen and ignore Maya's trantrum? :wacko:

 

[Toby's Mom]

 

[doctorcathy]

you know how we had the trainer come? well, i was thinking that ellie was getting to be alpha....she's the one that's always in your face and wants to play....and sprite just sits there if no one is playing with her. anyway, sprites still alpha--yay! find out who's alpha in your family...daizie or maya? and then play with the alpha first. it could be that maya is alpha and she just is like 'whatever' about the play time. i know how hard it is to give them all equal attention and to make them all feel good and wanted.

 

[ilove_d&m]

Daezie is definetely (sp?) the alpha dog.

Even if I play with Maya first then as soon as I start playing with Daezie- Maya goes far away from us and gives me the 'nobody loves me' look.

I just hope this situation gets better?

Doctorcathy, how did the training came out? what was the training about?

 

[Maxismom]

Maxi cracks me up you have no idea how well behaved he is around everyone but if i do something or say no to him he has a temper trantrum in puppy style and he makes these gremlin like sounds the other day when i was with my family my brother caught him ( talking back puppy style) as soon as my brother picked him up he was so well behaved
i feel like he is a real human sometimes. he also has been doing this thing the last 4 nights at 4am in the morning he starts hitting me with paws while i am sleeping and pulling my hair to get me up for what i dont know
i thought the first 2 nights it was to tell me he went on th wee wee pad but than the last 2 nights i have no idea what he wants from me
don't you just love them!

 

[ilove_d&m]

maxis mom they are hilarious!!and so smart.

Daezie when she is mad at me becuase i'm ignoring her or doing something else, if she can reach me, she grabs my hair and pulls it, hard , until I pay attention to her...

and when I she is doing something wrong and I'm telling her No, or stop, she barks at me back like she is mad that I'm telling her anything.

...i love my girls to death!!!

 

[doctorcathy]

we're still working with the trainer. we're doing sit and stays and down stays (which the dogs already know). it sucks because now that the girls are on these sorta choke collars....sprite shuts down and doesnt listen. so i gotta teach her that the collar can be on her---and not hurt her. i feel bad at times....but its cool cuz gruffi stopped bothering ellie so much.

next week we're going OUTSIDE with the trainer. im nervous.

gruffi likes to lunge....bark meanly...and then lick like an animal!

lol. so we gotta stop the lunging and barking...and he'll be perfect.

 

[pico's parent]

Doctor Cathy,

You said something in your post that got my attention. "sorta choke collars" for training? I've always heard that Maltese should not be put in collars because their tracheas are soft and collapse easily, so should your trainer be using choke collars? Either a halti or a halter, I would think, but not a collar of any sort.

 

[Furbaby's Mommie]

Good question! What about it Cathy? What sort of choke collar do they put on a Malt? Frosty coughs when anything pushes on his throat. I've always used a halter on him. I realize a halter doesn't get their attention when training like a collar. Does this trainer use special techniques for a tiny dog? I didn't have any success taking Frosty to a regular "puppy class" when he was young. They other dogs were too big and he wouldn't play with them and the trainer wanted to treat him like any other dog and his pysche was too fragile for her methods. She flipped him on his back because he wouldn't 'down' for her and after that he turned his back on her and wouldn't look at her. Even when I picked him up and she tried to pet him and make up, he just turned his back. I quit then, no use being there anymore. She said he was too smart and too emotionally atuned to humans, he has always reacted to things like a human instead of a dog. On top of that he is very alpha!
Dee

 

[doctorcathy]

frosty sounds EXACTLY like ellie. cynthia told the trainer that she didnt want her to "break ellies spirit". lol. the trainer, connie, was like "dont worry, she'll still have her little attitude". anyway, connie tried getting ellie to do a down....ellie didnt do it. so connie had the Martingale Collar on ellie and was trying to pull her down to do the down. ellie just stood there with her face against the ground for 5 minutes. connie eventually started with basics....doing puppy stuff with ellie---as though ellie didnt know how to do it. by the end of 10 minutes ellie was totally listening to connie. and then we switched to work on sprite and ellie was laying on her side not moving and cynthia was like "shes broken!". lol. it was funny. anyway, the collar---we have it so that when it closes...it gets snug on their neck---it doesnt choke. but when i do a correction...sprite feels the tug. ellie doesnt care. and sprite coughed like the first 3 times...but it didnt hurt her trachea or anything. ellie seems as though she's not affected by anything.

our trainer called ellie "aloof". :lol: its true!!

i really really dont like the Halti or Gentle Leader. If your dog acts like a beast or if you dont know how to handle it---the dog can get serious neck injuries. when i was training to be a Petco Trainer...the trainer i was studying from was putting these Bichon Frise in a gentle leader. it was really disgusting how she was teaching people to use it....these dogs were good dogs too, i honestly think that they only need a flat buckle collar. the only reason we have the girls on martingale and gruffi on the choke is because they lunge and NOTHING gets their attention. i used to try treats, chicken, beef, cheese,liverworst(sp?)--ANYTHING and nothing got their attention. and now that their older....they're getting stuck in their ways. this guy who started this training sounds like he really knows what he's doing. i bought the videos that they had on PBS, its really neat.