The terms Miniature Maltese, Teacup Maltese, Toy Maltese and Tiny Teacup Maltese refer to a Maltese dog that is smaller than the set AKC breed standard.
Is this a marketing scheme or are there Malts that are tinier than the standard sets forth?
Well, the answer is not a simple yes or no.
You see, there is no such official breed as the Toy Maltese or any other name that implies a dog that is smaller than the standard.
With that being said, there are breeders out there who, against standard breeding practices, are purposely producing puppies who are smaller than nature intended.
There are also breeders who will label a dog to be a Toy or a Miniature...However those pups will grow to the size of a standard.
Why do breeders sell Toy Maltese dogs if the breed does not officially exist?
Sometimes, a Maltese breeder,
in an effort to please the many potential buyers who think that these
breeds actually exist, will sell healthy and normal Maltese puppies (who
are naturally small to begin with) and simply call them Miniature, Teacup or Toy Maltese dogs.
This is moderately acceptable, as long as that breeder is simply using the word and not
selling anything except a standard Maltese dog. In cases like this,
often times a small home based breeder needs to optimize their website
for certain keywords, in order to be found in the search engines....To
do this, they often use terms such as "toy" and others. If you read
through their "About Us" section, you will often see that they state
that they breed to the AKC standard for size...And that is a good sign.