I just adopted a 3 1/2 yr old male Maltese 4 weeks ago. He's delightful!! He is, however, very aggressive toward other dogs & barks at people (mostly men) when inappropriate. Former owner was Korean & he was trained in Korean....despite that, he recognizes stay and sit.

I'd like him to stop barking when I say "quiet" for starters. I'm just learning about dogs as I've had cats for 40 years so this is all new to me!!

Also he's licking his butt & paws. Vet said paws were some sort of allergy and RXd Prednisone and an ointment. That was before the butt issue started....I assume I'll need to take him back so vet can look at that.

Any tips would be appreciated. I love him and hope to keep him well for many years to come!1

What food are you feeding? He may need his anal gland's expressed and they may be becoming impacted/infected. Did your vet discuss food allergy's along with steroid's? Check your food on the analysis site and see if it's 5 or 6 star rated. The review's can be very informative and educational as well. :-). I feed Innova (5 star's, green bag) and there are a lot of food discussion's on here (it makes it way into A LOT of post's, lol) so you'll probably get more suggestion's to look into. Any switch should be done slowly. On occasion they may need a beef based diet or something to curb the allergies but first step is to ditch alot of the common nasty stuff in a lot of the commercial food's. It's not a quick fix and can take a little time to really see the result's since it works from the inside but usually makes a HUGE difference.

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/

you have to reteach your dog in english~ start this inside your home...you have sit and stay.lets start on the "leave it" command, he is a small dog so this should be pretty easy for you, first off go get you a quick tight collar. its a collar that works on the same theroy as a chocker but its made of nylon and releases presure the minute you do and doesn'nt get cought up or stuck (I refuse to use choke chains).
If your little guy looks out the window and sees a dog or person and starts barking or getting agressive grab the leash loop on the collar pull up towards the top of his head between his ears GENTLY and give the command "leave it" in a firm even voice...put him in the sit and stay position.leave him there for 20-30 seconds then praise him
while your walking do this with his leash,(I know he is a small dog but do not try to train your dog in a string leash, it wont work,get a 6'leash and give him just enough leash so he is all but forced to walk right beside you) wait until the other dog has passed then let him up,if he still tries to take out after the other dog put him back to the sit and stay and repeat the leave it command, he will growl, whine bark ect, just keep repeating leave it,and appling the presure to the collar, Do not use his name during this excersize, you want him to focuse on the command not his name, this may take a few tries (may a lot of few tries ) when he finally gets it praise him, praise him ONLY WHEN HE SHOWS NO AGRESSION..he no doubt needs more socializing.
I suggest you not let anyone approach your dog until you get tis agression undre control also start teaching your dog english, everything you do to him or with him say it in english, ie food, bath, walk, potty time, ect.

Thanks very much for the replies. I did take him to the vet & he did need his anal glands "released." That stopped the butt licking. He also went back on Prednisone.

I'm working on the training in English, but it's slow going.