 Growling Maltese
New to the forum and hoping someone can offer some suggestions.
In Nov 07 we adopted a 3 yr old male Maltese from another family. All indications were that it was taken care of well and treated well. It is cage trained and housebroken. It was not spade.
Of course in the initial days/week, everything was new and both sides needed to adjust. At present the dog seems to have adjusted and become part of the family however, he tends to growl a lot when we go to pet him (always trying to do it in a non-agressive manner) and often when I (the oldest male of the house) goes to pet, he will put his head down to the floor and many times roll over to show his belly (very submissive). He especially growls when we wipe his feet and last night when putting him in his cage for the night, he started to growl again, and I tried to pet him to calm him, and he spun on me and bit my finger (not a nip, a full bite breaking skin).
Told him NO in a firm voice and put him in his cage. Not sure what is the next step here.
Any suggestions on how to curb this behaviour?
TIA
Mike | 
