hi Tjay and thanks for your post,
You have a tricky situation here at the moment but with a little work you should be able to have two happy well adjusted dogs in no time. It sounds like your dogs are having trouble deciding who is the boss. When you pick one dog up on your lap you are implying to the dogs that that one is the boss. Similarly when you feed or greet one dog first you are suggesting that that dog is in charge. You can see how if you greet or feed one dog first one day and then another another day your dogs will be very confused. In your situation I would recommend making the maltese the higher dog as it is older. To make the order clearer to your dogs have both dogs sit and wait before feeding and then feed the maltese first and then the chow. When you get home ignore both dogs initially and then greet the maltese first and then the chow. If either dog misbehaves for example becomes aggressive with the other immediately put the dog that misbehaved in a separate room for a 3 minute time out. This will show both dogs that aggression is not acceptable and will help nip fights in the bud before they can begin.
I hope this helps, and if you have any further questions please don't hesitate to ask.
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