The honest answer: quick pupil, one slow subject
A Maltese is not a stubborn dog, and he is not a dull one. This is a breed developed for centuries as a close companion, tuned to human faces and voices, and most Maltese learn cues, tricks, and household routines with real enthusiasm when the teaching feels like a game. Owners who expect difficulty usually meet it in one place only — housetraining — and mistake that single slow subject for a training problem across the board. Judge the breed by subject: obedience and tricks, genuinely easy; toilet habits, a longer project that rewards patience and routine; barking at doorways, a habit to shape early before it sets.
Why Maltese learn willingly
The Maltese toolkit starts with motivation. These dogs crave being the center of your attention, many are keen on food, and they read tone quickly, so a marker word or click followed by a pea-sized treat and delighted praise lands fast. Sessions should stay tiny-dog sized too: three to five minutes, a handful of repetitions, ending on a win, several times a day. Because they are small, owners often skip formal training altogether, then live with a dog who barks from the sofa and pulls at the end of a lead like a kite. The same dog taught sit, come, settle, and leave it in his first months becomes the portable, polite companion people imagined when they chose the breed.
Housetraining: the exception that defines the reputation
A puppy with a bladder the size of a walnut needs the garden far more often than a new owner expects — after waking, eating, playing, and at least every hour in between at first. Add a Maltese dislike of rain, cold wind, and wet grass, and you get a dog who may sidestep the plan on miserable mornings unless you go out with him, wait, and reward the result on the spot. Indoor pads can bridge a high-rise or a winter, but decide early, because switching systems midstream confuses a small dog. Accidents cleaned without scolding, a fixed feeding schedule, and a confined sleeping area beside your bed shorten the road considerably.
Methods that backfire with this breed
Scolding is the commonest mistake. A dog this small experiences a raised voice and looming posture as genuinely frightening, and a frightened Maltese does not learn faster — he learns to hide when he toilets, to bark earlier at strangers, and to distrust hands reaching down. Heavy collars, jerking leads, and long drilling sessions are equally wrong for the build and the temperament. Use a harness, food rewards small enough to give twenty in a session, and management — gates, pens, supervision — instead of punishment while habits form. If barking is your battle, teach a quiet cue and reward silence at the window rather than shouting over a dog who thinks you are joining in.
Building a training record worth keeping
Write down the cues your Maltese knows, the exact words your household uses, which treats motivate him, and where his housetraining honestly stands, because a small dog passes between family members, sitters, and sometimes homes across a long life. Consistency is what makes him look easy; conflicting words from different people make the same dog look untrained. When a Maltese is adopted or rehomed, that written progress saves his new family from starting at zero, and KinsLe Transferrable Profiles are built for exactly that handover, carrying his cue list, reward preferences, and housetraining stage across with his profile.