50 Fun Facts About Maltese Dog

The modern Maltese is placed in which kennel-club group?

The AKC ranks it 37th of 210 breeds in popularity and calls it 'Ye Ancient Dogge of Malta'.

The Maltese is genetically related to which trio of breeds?

They probably share a common ancestor from a severe bottleneck when a handful of petite varieties were selected for mating around two centuries ago.

Which slight variation is permitted on the Maltese's otherwise pure white coat?

Light brown spotting is also tolerated, and like other white dogs the breed may show tear-stains.

How much does an adult Maltese usually weigh?

That is about 7–9 lb; the AKC standard asks for dogs under 7 lb.

What does the Maltese notably not do, which makes it popular with allergy sufferers?

The single silky coat has no undercoat, which is why it drops so little hair.

According to Nicholas Cutillo, the ancient Maltese variety probably resembled which later breed?

He pictured a short snout, pricked ears and a bulbous head, quite unlike today's drop-eared dog.

Stanley Coren suggested that Maltese-type dogs were perhaps the first dogs employed as what?

The little dog appears to have been the favourite household pet of the ancient Greek and Roman world.

An Attic amphora from about 500 BC, dug up at Vulci, shows a small dog labelled with which Greek word?

The vase itself was excavated in the nineteenth century and has since been lost.

Besides Malta, ancient writers placed the dog's origin on which Adriatic island, also called Melita?

Recent scholarship generally comes down on the side of Malta, whose Latin name came from the Carthaginian city of Melite.

In classical Greece the tiny dog was called Melitaion kunidion, which means what?

Its smallness was compared to martens and even pangolins.

Which Cynic philosopher referred to himself as a 'Maltese dog'?

The Cynics took their name from the Greek for 'dog-like', so the joke suited him; Diogenes Laertius recorded the remark.

In one of Aesop's fables, a spoiled Maltese is contrasted with which envious, hard-working animal?

The jealous animal tries to frolic and be winsome like the pup, only to be beaten and tied back to its manger.

Which Hellenistic poet, per Pliny, identified the dog's home Melite as the Adriatic island, not Malta?

The poem Alexandra, ascribed to his contemporary Lycophron, went the other way and identified Melite with Malta.

Which geographer, writing in the early first century AD, attributed the dog's origin to Malta?

His Geographica surveyed the whole known world of Augustus's day.

In Theophrastus's Characters, the petty-proud man's memorial slab for his dead dog calls it what?

The character type is Mikrophilotimia, a showy fastidiousness about one's own taste.

Per Athenaeus, the Sybarites delighted in Melite lapdogs and which other companions?

The dogs reportedly went with them even to the gymnasia.

What did the Romans call these little dogs?

Catulus is Latin for a puppy or small dog, and melitaeus simply means 'of Melita'.

The Roman poet Martial wrote verses about a lapdog, claimed to be a Maltese, named what?

She belonged to his friend Publius, whom some have tried to link to a Roman governor of Malta of that name.

Dog genomic experts say the modern Maltese, like many breeds, actually emerged in which era?

It was created by regulating crosses of existing varieties to produce a type that could be registered as a distinct breed.

Abbé Jean Quintin, writing Malta's first history in 1536, reported what about the island's famous dogs?

Quintin was secretary to the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam.

John Caius, physician to Elizabeth I, described 'Melitei' pets from Malta that were really what?

He was probably looking at the newly imported King Charles type, ancestors of the Blenheim toy dog.

Edwin Landseer's 1837 painting The Lion Dog from Malta: The Last of his Tribe portrayed a dog named what?

The tiny white dog was posed beside a huge Newfoundland for scale.

Queen Victoria commissioned that Landseer portrait as a birthday present for whom?

The dog in the picture belonged to the recipient, not to the queen.

Breeder T. V. H. Lukey claimed his 'Maltese' strain had been imported in 1841 from where?

The Victorian London 'Maltese' had no known connection to the island at all; Lukey was better known for English Mastiffs.

A Maltese class was first accepted at the 1862 Agricultural Hall Show in which London district?

The winner that year went on to dominate British shows for the next two decades.

From 1869 to 1879, which breeder's Maltese swept most shows at Birmingham and the Crystal Palace?

His kennels were considered to have furnished the finest strain for all subsequent Maltese breeding.

In what year did the American Kennel Club recognise the Maltese?

By then a white 'Maltese Lion Dog' had already been shown at the very first Westminster show in 1877.

Under what name was a white dog shown at the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in 1877?

For a while afterwards American Maltese were occasionally crossed with poodles.

The Maltese stud book established in 1901 was based on the offspring of how many females?

By the 1950s the registry still counted only about 50 dogs in its pedigree table.

The FCI definitively accepted the Maltese in 1955 under the patronage of which country?

Wikipedia describes the ancient variety as a dwarf white breed 'from Italy' that is generally associated with Malta.

Where does Stanley Coren rank the Maltese among 79 breeds assessed for intelligence?

Coren's ranking measures obedience trainability rather than problem-solving, and lapdogs tend to score low on it.

A 2024 UK study gave the Maltese what average life expectancy?

That beats the 12.7-year average for purebreds in the same study; an Italian study the same year found 11 years.

The Maltese is prone to which knee problem?

The kneecap slips out of its groove; liver and heart issues are the breed's other noted weak spots.

Maltese should be checked for which congenital heart defect?

In a PDA a foetal blood vessel near the heart fails to close after birth.

Female Maltese stand roughly how tall?

That is about 8–9 inches; males are only slightly taller.

The Maltese's silky coat falls heavily along the body without curls or what?

The AKC describes the show coat as floor-length.

What does a Maltese's tail characteristically do?

Hanging ears complete the classic outline, along with the weight of up to 3–4 kg.

Mid-1800s London fanciers crossed Chinese toy dogs with which two breeds to select for longer 'feather'?

Only later did the London market start dealing in dogs it called 'Maltese'.

Frank Sinatra gave Marilyn Monroe a Maltese with what name?

The name was short for 'Mafia Honey', a dig at Sinatra's rumoured associations.

Which Scottish novelist wrote a 2010 novel narrated by Marilyn Monroe's Maltese?

It won him a Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award, and John Banville compared it to The Great Gatsby.

Hotel magnate Leona Helmsley left a $12 million trust fund to her Maltese, named what?

The dog lived out her days in Florida with the manager of the Helmsley Sandcastle Hotel and died in 2010 aged twelve.

To how much did a judge cut the $12 million trust fund Leona Helmsley left her dog?

Two disinherited grandchildren received $6 million between them from the money that was clawed back.

The bichon-type dogs, the Maltese's close relatives, are believed to descend from which water dog?

'Bichon' is thought to be a contraction of 'barbichon', meaning 'little barbet'.

Which powerful Italian family kept the Bolognese dog and gave them as gifts?

Louis XIV, Philip II of Spain and Catherine the Great are all said to have owned some.

Where does the American Kennel Club rank the Maltese in breed popularity?

The AKC lists a height of 7–9 inches and a life expectancy of 12–15 years for the breed.

The word 'bichon' is believed to be a contraction of 'barbichon', meaning what?

Bichon-type dogs were already common in 14th-century France, where royalty and aristocrats kept them as pets.

The Bichon Frisé, a Maltese relative, was originally bred on which island?

Formally the Bichon Tenerife, it later spent a lean spell performing in circuses with organ grinders before Belgian and French fanciers revived it in the 1930s.

The Coton de Tuléar, a bichon-type cousin, is named for a port in which country?

The dogs became so popular with the island's ruling class that laws were passed to stop commoners owning them.

Which political event nearly wiped out the Havanese, another bichon-type breed?

The Communists saw the dogs as property of the former elite; expatriates who fled to the United States with their pets saved the breed.

Like other white dogs, the Maltese may show what cosmetic issue around the eyes?

The reddish-brown discolouration shows up more on a pure white coat, which the breed standard requires apart from a pale ivory tinge.