Thanks for the welcome.

Karla - I appreciate your advice and it's great to hear that your lab and maltese get along well. Mr. Darcy actually has a little yorkie buddy who he plays with. Monster (that's the yorkie's name, ha-ha) loves nothing better than to ride on Darcy's ear, it's hysterical. Darcy is 72 lbs and Monster is 4.5 lbs soaking wet!!! But I know it's quite different to bring a little one home. My Lizzie is quite the princess and sweet as can be, she is gentle, playful and very well mannered. She also likes little ones.
I've heard/read that little ones are much harder to potty train. How hard is hard? My standards were sooooo easy!!! I just showed Mr. Darcy the doggy door and he was potty trained/house broken the 1st day at 12 weeks. Lizzy got #2 right away, #1 took almost a week. I thought she was a slow poodle. lol
You are very welcome!
The secret to all behavior modification is management!! I have 4 Malts, all trained to go to peepads in a certain spot, I have throw rugs down (white and look and smell like peepads) and NONE of my girls go on them.
What I do is, keep up a small pen on all levels of my house, with pads in them. That way, the puppy is always sucessful in the pen and when I am busy, I put the puppy in the pen. Then, when the puppy is OUT of the pen, I am either holding it OR I have my eye on it 100% of the time, no husband, no kids ME... because husbands get distracted with the news (LOL. I was watching her, NO YOU were watching TV!) and kids do also. So, you must be diligent and ONLY kids/husbands you know, will not be distracted for 1 second can help, otherwise, your job and only your job
Often, as puppy is out running around, I take to potty area. What I'm doing is making success each time. You have to create success and then the puppy starts following the adults who use the pads. It can take months for total trust that the puppy knows. What I find, is people do such a good job at first, they assume the pup is trained. Then it starts having accidents, they correct it (a NO NO, never correct) and then puppy starts putting person and pee together, is bad... so they start sneaking in other rooms. Jean Donaldson wrote "The Culture Clash". it has the best chapter on potty breaking, I've ever read.
** missed the doggy door the first time. I'd be careful of a doggy door with a toy breed. Injury and depending on where you live, you need to be cautious of hawks, owls and coyotes. Recently, on a malt list, someone had their Malt taken, 2ft from where they stood, by a coyote! gone, poof.. I have Red tail hawks, so I do not let mine run in the yard, unless it is in certain area of yard which is wide view...but we also have coyotes. so, I'm not doing that any more. NOT worth it!
So, with you being home, I'd say your biggest dilema will be, some separation issues. You must put the puppy in the pen/crate while you are home so it gets used to that. They want to be with us 100% of the time and we like that as well, but it is not healthy in the long run. Also, they do better in pairs

)) Malts are definitely a breed, that prefer their own breed.
Good luck. You won't be disappointed in this breed, I promise
Karla
Animal Communicator/Canine Behaviorist