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Maltipoo Behavior Problems

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Maltipoo Behavior Problems

Maltipoo Behavior Problems

The top four challenges that Maltipoos face

Maltipoo Behavior Problems- Maltipoos are known for their easygoing personalities, loyalty to their owners, and overall friendly nature, which makes them wonderful family pets.

Nonetheless, both puppies and older dogs may develop behavior problems. As a Maltipoo owner, you may encounter problems with some of the following behaviors. 

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We will also discuss what steps you can take to counter negative Maltipoo behavior.The Maltipoos have what kind of behavioral issues? According to our data, the top four are:

1) Difficultly with house training

2) Excessive barking at night

3)Jumping/ acting hyper

4) Separation Anxiety

Here are some ways to deal with these behaviors if your Maltipoo puppy or dog is exhibiting them.

Housetraining can be difficult

Although it takes some time and effort, most people enter into the process with the outlook that it will be over soon and everything will be okay in the end. …but what do you do when your Maltipoo struggles with this or even acts defiant at times?

There is a problem getting your Maltipoo to potty train as well, although as we delve deeper, it is not really associated with “behavior”. 

Here is a list of the top complaints by owners, along with what can be done to fix them.

It doesn’t take long for my Maltipoo to pee or poop as soon as I bring him home.

Making sure that the dog is focused and allowing enough time for the task is important. Be sure your dog isn’t multi-tasking while he is trying to focus. Playing or roaming around should not be allowed. Standing in the middle of the designated area, make your Maltipoo circle within it while wearing a leash of six feet in length. Despite his sniffs and glances, do not play with him or speak to him in a way that would distract him.

The dogs need up to 20 minutes for bowel muscles to relax and release feces. They will go on cue if they are on time, but it is ideal for them to do it on cue. When urinating, a dog may only empty half of its bladder, but it will take some time for the remainder to empty.

Make sure to set up an outdoor chair, bring a book or your phone… but don’t be rushed.

The key will be to gradually extend the interval between taking the dog outside. Start slowly and work your way up to 15 minutes longer than normal. In a week or two, he may be able to go every 15 minutes over the course of days and weeks, if this is done in 15 minute intervals that start with every hour and work up to every hour.

There are times when my dog can’t hold his needs for longer than an hour!

An important first step would be to identify any health issues that are causing this. Once all medical issues have been tested for, a maltipoo pet owner can turn to other factors.

Maltipoo behavior problems often have a physical component as well, although this is discussed under Maltipoo behavioral problems. A very young puppy’s ability to hold their needs is extremely limited. During growth, bladder and bowel muscles become stronger, but only if they are allowed to grow.  

As long as you continue taking an 8-month-old pup outside every 2 hours, and he continues to go every 2 hours even as he turns 3 and 4, his body will be used to it. 

 

I often wake up in the middle of the night to find my Maltipoo has poop or pee!

There was no sign of him waking me up! This is not unusual for puppies that have no health problems. Some dogs will simply do the deed silently, even when their owners are alerted to the need. Ensure that you take him outside one hour before bedtime and then 20 minutes before bedtime, giving him the time we discussed earlier.

Also, two hours before going to sleep, Maltipoo puppies should not eat anything else. However, do not restrict water consumption.

Besides ensuring that the sleeping area is big enough, you should also ensure that the beds are comfortable. Dogs need to relieve themselves even if they are not allowed to go outside. To prevent this from happening, it is best to create a gated area where a bed and pee pads can be stored. If you are not notified, the pads may be used without your knowledge.

Finally, making sure that your Maltipoo gets enough exercise and activity during the day can help the dog sleep better through the night. Two daily walks are best and some play time (fetch, etc.) along with some command training all work together to provide enough stimulation to help a dog stay asleep at night
.

My Maltipoo is peeing everywhere in the house! This may be a urinary tract or bladder infection, so once those and other health issues are ruled out, you can look at this as a behavioral problem with the Maltipoo. And as you may have guessed, this will be marking behavior if the dog pees all over the house. Marking is more like a spraying or a ‘misting’ as opposed to emptying the entire bladder.

 
Unfixed dogs will spray much more than those that are spayed or neutered, so if you are not planning on breeding your dog you may want to seriously consider having him or her fixed. It also cuts down the risk of many health problems including several forms of cancer.
 
Dogs that feel that they must exhibit dominance may have this behavior problem. Working to establish yourself as the true leader can help. Be sure to never offer food unless the ‘Sit’ command is obeyed, teach all commands and be the first to enter & exit the house, holding the leash in such a way that your Maltipoo must follow you and not the other way around.
 
Finally, be sure to use the right cleaner for any areas that are affected. Solutions with enzyme fighters will do the trick, as they can eliminate odors that humans cannot even detect. 
 

 

Separation Anxiety

Home-alone dogs with severe behavioral problems may simply be unable to handle being at home alone. It is not uncommon for them to be very destructive (chewing everything they can find), bark up a storm, work themselves into a frenzy, attempt to escape from their area and even become depressed.

To help with this behavioral problem, here are a few quick tips:

  • Never crate the dog. He should be given a good sized, gated off area so that he does not feel confined.
  • Experiment with window vs windowless views. Sometimes having a line of sight to the outside world can help with feeling isolated and with others it can be a trigger for out of control behavior.
  • Leave a light on when you leave. If a clouds roll in or you get home as the sun is setting (or later), your Maltipoo won’t be in an empty, darkening house, which in and of itself can set off nervousness.
  • While you may have to work 5 or more days a week and cannot offer quantity of time, offer quality time! Explore different routes when walking, use a sling to bring your Maltipoo with you to run errands, engage your dog to help you around the home, and spend as much time together as possible.
  • Some owners worry that this will ‘spoil’ a dog into becoming too used to being with the owner that it makes it worse when he is left home alone. However, just the opposite is true. When a dog is starving for attention at all times, that is when his behavior is at its worst. But when a dog has a full, enriching and interesting life, he has often ‘had his fill’ and copes better during the quieter times.
  • Have the right toy supplies. Be sure to leave plenty of chew toys, toys that hold treats and peanut butter and for Maltipoo with severe problems, a cuddle toy that emits a soothing heartbeat can be just the trick to calm a dog down. Note: 
  • Act as calm as you can when leaving and when you arrive back home, work hard to behave in a matter-of-fact manner.
4) Jumping/ acting hyper
 
The Maltipoo is certainly not a lazy dog and while some can be quiet and shy there are just as many that are a bit too hyper. A Maltipoo may have the behavioral problems of jumping on you or on guests , running around in circles like a loon and basically acting a bit crazy.
 
There are some things that you can do to help:
 
A Healthy Outlet – Make sure that you give the puppy or dog an opportunity to release pent up energy in a constructive way. Some dogs do okay with one walk per day, many are best with two but some need three. Each dog has his own level of energy and will need a way to express it.
If a dog is stuck in the house for too long, just about any element can trigger him to act out and jump up. 
 
This can range from just a person entering the room to the doorbell ringing. Dogs need to explore, to see, to smell and to stretch their muscles. While a short jaunt around the neighborhood may not seem like much to you, it can do wonders for a toy sized dog like the Maltipoo. 
Exposure – The response by some owners is to cut the dog off from the very thing that is causing the problem. 
 
For example, an owner may place the Maltipoo in his gated area when company comes over or avoid taking the dog to the park due to his behavior. Some owners will hesitate to take their dog for a walk if the dog jumps, barks and acts crazy when cars, people or other dogs pass by. 
 
This is often due to an owner feeling embarrassed about having a dog that displaying behavioral problems and some owners don’t want to feel the stress of dealing with it.
 
However, when you limit a dog in this way, you rob him of the chance to learn to tolerate the trigger. The best method to deal with this sort of behavioral issue is to continually expose the dog – without force, pressure or expectations – to what is causing the problem. 
 
At the same time, there should be zero response by the owner no matter what the dog does. When out for a walk, keep him on harness an leash (the harness and not just a collar will protect his neck while he freaks out) , and you should keep walking as intended and bring your dog along. 
 
Indoors, the same ignoring technique should be done. No eye contact, nothing. When a dog finally tuckers out and is quiet – that is the moment a treat and praise should be given. 
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Should a dog be given a reward if he is only quiet because he got tired? Yes!  If he calmed down – no matter the reason – reward reinforces what will and what will not bring him the goodies.

Continual exposure to things that elicit negative behavior works well whether or not it makes sense to you that the dog acts that way. For example, a car passing by once a week while out for exercise may seem like a huge deal to a dog that hardly sees one but if you take that same dog and have him see cars every day, twice a day for a month something happens…
 
Those cars are not such a huge deal now. They got boring. They lost their appeal. When a Maltipoo’s owner ignored the jumping and the ruckus and kept walking… and the dog kept seeing the same thing over and over…. It became part of the scenery and not so important after all. 

Excessive Barking at Night

This breed – in general – is not known as a ‘yapper’ however due to a variety of factors, a Maltipoo may be stuck in a behavioral pattern of barking incessantly. While there are triggers that will cause an adult to bark, this issue is most commonly seen with puppies under the age of 1 year old.
 
We’ll look at the triggers and things that you can do to help your puppy or dog be a bit quieter.
 
Barking is high on the list of behavioral problems and certainly doing this at night tops things in regard to frustration that an owner can feel when the Maltipoo is up and making noise til the wee hours of the morning.
 
Before we dive into the most common reasons for this, do first be sure that your puppy or dog is not acting out due to discomfort. Wired bottom cages are just terrible on the paws (and the whole body for that matter), small crates are too confining for a dog to stay all night and areas that are drafty may cause a puppy or even older Maltipoo to be extremely vocal. You’ll also want to ensure that your dog is in good health. Some issues such as hip, legs or back problems may not flare up until the dog is lying down and therefore nighttime ruckus may be validated. 
 
Once the above elements have been ruled out, we can start to look at this from a behavioral problem standpoint. There are essentially only two reasons why a healthy dog in a warm and comfortable environment will keep you up all night:
 
1) Bathroom needs that are not being attended to
2) Attention seeking behavior
The Fix – For puppies and even for older dogs that may just not be able to last through the night, do be sure to bring them outside about 1 hour before bed and patiently wait 15 to 20 minutes for there to be urination and/or a bowel movement. 
 
A common mistake is for owners to assume that if a dog needs to go, he will do so within mere minutes and this can create tons of problems. Some dogs need time to find just the ‘right spot’ and for others, it’s a matter of the body needing extra time to relax enough to expel out urine and/or feces.
 
Then, at night, barking should be attended to IF a reasonable enough time has passed that needing to go out seems possible. If so, it is super important to keep lights very low and have zero talking. Let the dog do the deed and silently bring him back to his spot.
 
In this way, owners can teach a dog that is waking up that while housebreaking needs will be met, there will be zero fun and absolutely no engaging interaction at all. Teaching a dog that getting up at night is just about the most boring thing that can happen is often all that is needed for him to stop this particular behavioral problem.
 
At ALL other times, the dog should be 100% ignored. This is easier said than done when you may be worried that your neighbors are about to call in a disturbance or if the noise may wake up your children. However, dogs that have a behavior problem of barking for attention quickly learn to self-sooth if no one runs over to do it for them. 
 
Remember that even storming up and shushing the dog is a form of attention; to stop a dog from being vocal in the dead of night, there must be no interaction whatsoever. 
 
As long as he is healthy, warm, safe and potty needs are met, leaving him to self-sooth with toys and a cozy blanket will give him the opportunity to learn to calm down and relax without his human right there. This gives a pup a good foundation for better behavior as an adult. Rushing over to every unfounded yelp, whine and whimper only creates a terrible, vicious cycle of repeated negative behavior.
 Maltipoo Aggressive Behavior – This breed is typically calm and friendly. However, if your Maltipoo is nipping, biting, growling, or otherwise acting aggressively, this article may offer some guidance. 

How to Banish a Maltipoo’s Boredom – If you’re looking for some fun ideas to keep your Maltipoo busy and occupied, this is a super-helpful article. See 6 fun things to do together as a team and 6 for your Maltipoo to do alone (independent play).

 

 

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