SOOOOO many problems with new Boxer pup! :(

[Qlove6]

We recently got a new Boxer puppy (he's 10 wks old, we got him at 6 wks) and have had numerous problems with training and other things:

1: Biting/Snapping - The very 1st day we had him home, we noticed that he would play pretty calmly, then snap/bite at our hands. At times, he would utter a small growl, then calm down, only to bite at our hands again. A few weeks ago, he bit my husband and broke skin after my husband reprimanded his biting and attempted a mouth-hold (shown to us by the vet). Now - he basically tries to bite whenever you attempt discipline. He also bites his lead and thrashes his head when we go for walks.

2: Peeing in his crate - This has been a big problem. He started peeing in his crate the 2nd week. He would pee on his walk, then pee in the crate just 2 hrs later. My husband and I work full-time, but he comes home on his lunchbreak to walk the dog and a lot of times, he would've peed in his crate already. In the middle of the night, he starts barking only to let us know that he's already peed. We've read training tips that say you shouldn't put towels or pads in crates, but it's frustrating to have to clean a kennel and puppy 3 times a day after he's standing/lying in pee. Right now, we're not letting him eat or drink after 6pm (he eats 3 times a day). He walks before bed, my husband gets up at 2am just to let him out, walk him at 5am and 7:30am, 12pm, and 6pm. After then, we're home to take him out when he needs to go. Is it appropriate to think he can hold it all night? Does every other puppy-owner have to wake up in the middle of the night to walk their dog?

3: Our 2 year old - He's almost 3 and normally, he's great with dogs, but he's a little scared of this one. Plus, the dog has tried to nip at him a few times. He can be a little active, too. We've tried to get him acclimated to the new puppy, but we do try to keep them apart.

4: Training - He does what he wants. Occasionally he'll sit, he'll go to his "bed" which is a large doggie pillow, but will rarely stay, or he'll just sit to the side of it. He also doesn't like to go into his crate. We reinforce his good behavior but nothing seems to be sticking.

PLEASE HELP! We lead busy lives and we think we have room for this additional member of our family, but we also want to look at safety, first. Any help would be appreciated.

[Nettle]

Take the puppy back to the breeder. You do not have time for a puppy in your lives right now. If you return him at once, he has a chance to adapt to a better life.

To answer your questions:

You have a tiny baby dog. It is unreasonable to keep him crated and expect him to hold his waste for hours. He physically cannot do it. You are causing him grief.

You have a small child, far too small to understand how to behave around a puppy. There is enormous potential for tragedy here.


Your vet is giving you dumb advice about the mouthing. Few vets understand dog behaviour - and if yours did, s/he'd be telling you what I am telling you now.

Until your lifestyle changes sufficiently to allow you to have a dog and care for it properly, use the time to research and learn. Here is a good start. We are always happy to help people and to pass on our knowledge.

This may not be what you wanted to hear, but it is the truth - you cannot keep a puppy properly in your present circumstances.

[Mattie]

1: Biting/Snapping - The very 1st day we had him home, we noticed that he would play pretty calmly, then snap/bite at our hands. At times, he would utter a small growl, then calm down, only to bite at our hands again. A few weeks ago, he bit my husband and broke skin after my husband reprimanded his biting and attempted a mouth-hold (shown to us by the vet). Now - he basically tries to bite whenever you attempt discipline. He also bites his lead and thrashes his head when we go for walks.

How the hell is a pup supposed to understand that when you hold hims mouth it means he shouldn't bite. He is a dog, a baby dog at that, and doesn't undestand English, we can't explain to him, we can't tell him why we are doing something so no wonder he is biting more, to him you are attacking him and he is defending himself.

I agree with Nettle, take him back to the breeder, if you don't you will end up with a dog that is out of control, a Boxer out of control is impossible to live with, a Boxer that is well trained, is a joy to live with. You don't have the time to train this pup.

[Qlove6]

Wow...

I posted the initial question on this site because I'm a fan of Victoria Stillwell and felt that I could get sound advice from her site. While I do appreciate your responses, I was hoping to get feedback on how (or if) we could make our situation work. We are not new to raising dogs (we have raised boxers and cocker spaniels) but just didn't have the same type of difficulty as we're having now. Of course, we're well aware that we have a small child which does require different methods and awareness.

As for the "dumb" advice from our vet on mouthing, this was something new to us and because we trusted her advice and professionalism, we felt that maybe it could work with our pup. But to no avail. As stated before, this was behavior we noticed the first day our pup was home. We are not in the habit of being aggressive toward or "attacking" our family pets, but we are cognizant of how this could be perceived by a pup.

And Nettle, you're right: this may not have been what we wanted to hear, but we do take this to heart. You never ask a question that you don't want to know the answer to. There is a such thing as constructive criticism, however, and Mattie, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, as evidenced by your use of profanity towards someone seeking advice. I do not think this was necessary.

As for peeing in his crate, we felt that taking him out every few hours, waking in the middle of the night to take him out, and coming home during lunch breaks was sufficient. But if not, we would still like advice on what is sufficient. Even last night - we took him out at 10:30pm and he started barking at 12:30am, having already peed in his crate.

We had already spoken with the breeder and it is not a problem for him to return, if neccessary. I want to be very clear that we're happy to have him with us and, the vast majority of the time, he is calm and sweet with all of us. There were just specific things that we noticed that we needed help with. Again, thanks for your time, and we'll be sure to make a decision that is beneficial to both our family and our puppy.

Many blessings to you both!

[Mattie]

Wow...

I posted the initial question on this site because I'm a fan of Victoria Stillwell and felt that I could get sound advice from her site. While I do appreciate your responses, I was hoping to get feedback on how (or if) we could make our situation work. We are not new to raising dogs (we have raised boxers and cocker spaniels) but just didn't have the same type of difficulty as we're having now. Of course, we're well aware that we have a small child which does require different methods and awareness.

You did get sound advice, unfortunately it isn't the advice you wanted. Boxers are high energy dogs and are clowns, they are perpetual puppies and clumsy with it. They are lovely dogs but not round small children.

As for the "dumb" advice from our vet on mouthing, this was something new to us and because we trusted her advice and professionalism, we felt that maybe it could work with our pup. But to no avail. As stated before, this was behavior we noticed the first day our pup was home. We are not in the habit of being aggressive toward or "attacking" our family pets, but we are cognizant of how this could be perceived by a pup.

It was your vet's advice that we disagreed with not you, you took his advice thinking he knew what he was doing.

And Nettle, you're right: this may not have been what we wanted to hear, but we do take this to heart. You never ask a question that you don't want to know the answer to. There is a such thing as constructive criticism, however, and Mattie, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, as evidenced by your use of profanity towards someone seeking advice. I do not think this was necessary.

What profanity? There was nothing in my post like that. You asked advice and got advice that you didn't like, if you don't want the truth don't ask the question.

As for peeing in his crate, we felt that taking him out every few hours, waking in the middle of the night to take him out, and coming home during lunch breaks was sufficient. But if not, we would still like advice on what is sufficient. Even last night - we took him out at 10:30pm and he started barking at 12:30am, having already peed in his crate.

Your pup is 10 weeks old, still a young baby, like all babies he is not devoped enough to go several hours between toileting, he needs to be taken out every half an hour. You didn't expect your child to be trained until he was mature enough to cope but are expecting your put to be.

[qupte]We had already spoken with the breeder and it is not a problem for him to return, if neccessary. I want to be very clear that we're happy to have him with us and, the vast majority of the time, he is calm and sweet with all of us. There were just specific things that we noticed that we needed help with. Again, thanks for your time, and we'll be sure to make a decision that is beneficial to both our family and our puppy.

Many blessings to you both![/quote]

Unless you can take him out every half an hour to toilet, watch him and your child at the same time, train him the way he should be trained, give him lots of exercise both mentally and physically then he would be better going back to the breeder. Boxers are high maintanance dogs just as children are high maintainance.

[Nettle]

I have a ten-week-old pup at this very moment, of a much calmer breed than a Boxer, and it is like an exercise in perpetual motion Although I work mostly from home, I have had to put a lot of activities on "hold" while we get through the baby stage.

They're lovely when they are asleep though

[Qlove6]

Thanks Nettle for the reply!

[emnemsh]

i disagree with the comment that boxers shouldnt be around small children i am only 19 but my mum has owned boxers since i was very very small and we were just fine
With the right training a boxer is a brilliant dog around kids. Good Luck

[Qlove6]

Thanks for the reply. I disagree with this statement also. My husband grew up around boxers and the breeder we got our dog from got a boxer when her son was 9 months old and they were great together. I think it just depends on a lot of circumstances.

[natastrophe]

2/ Pups pee frequently. You have to expect that you will be getting up during the night to let him out for a pee for ... well, probably the first couple of months. He's young and can't hold it in all day or night yet!

3/ I'm having a little problem like this at the moment except mine is more agression than fear.. sorry I can't offer advice with this.

4/ I just trained our new pup how to "stay" last week and it worked a charm.
*Tell him to sit, give him a treat.
*Tell him to "stay". [At this point, I made a hand action of putting my index finger up. I don't know if this makes any difference!] Take one step backwards and keep your eyes on him. If he gets up, tell him to sit again and repeat. If he doesn't move when you take a step back and say "stay", give him a treat.
*Try again but take 2 steps this time, then 3 next time etc.

I did this until I was in the next room, out of the dog's sight. He stayed!!! I poked my head around the corner of the doorway and threw a treat over for him.

The best thing is to only work on it for maybe 5-10 minutes at a time. Maybe less because your dog is younger than mine and probably has a shorter attention span.

I also found that attempting it 2-3 different times a day helped him learn quicker.



I think it's important to remember that pups need a lot of attention and training when they're at such a young age. If you can afford to take a couple of weeks off work to try and correct these things and spend time training/teaching him, then your life and his will be so much easier!

[Mattie]

i disagree with the comment that boxers shouldnt be around small children i am only 19 but my mum has owned boxers since i was very very small and we were just fine
With the right training a boxer is a brilliant dog around kids. Good Luck

Boxers are good with children but Boxer puppies have far too much energy and don't know their own strength,

I had a very active large dog when my sons were small, she used to scatter them like skittles when racing around which wasn't good for my sons. They were often covered in bruises because of the dog. Apart from this she was very good with them, joined in all their games including ring a ring of roses, she would have a rubber ring in her mouth and one of them would hold her tail but she refused to fall down.

There is also the problem of a tail hitting a child in the face, in the UK docking is illegal now except for working dogs and a Boxer tail is thin and bony which really hurts.

When picking a breed of dog you have to look at all the aspects not just when they are adult and trained.

[Qlove6]

Thanks natastophe!
We've been working with him on training and, I will admit, things are a 'little' better. He does well with 'sit' and we're working on 'stay' - he's very curious ! I actually have a few days off including the weekend and I'm gonna work with him then. I also want to give him more time to work off some of his energy through play/exercise. A coworker of mine had a lot of the same difficulties and stated that her dog did way better when they started taking her to 'doggy daycare'!

[Nettle]

'Sit' is okay for very short spells eg just as you lower the food bowl, but it's too early to expect him to sit for long and far too early to ask him to 'stay'. He is very much a baby yet. You would not expect your child to 'stay'

If we ask what is reasonable for the stage of development our baby dog is at, we set ourselves up for success and a happy relationship. Babies of all species need to play, to explore, to learn about the world around them. Babies don't do 'still' easily or happily.

This puppy time is all too short. Love him, teach him to play gently, show him the outside world, all quietly and in a way to give him confidence (even Boxers need confidence!) and leave the keeping-still stuff until later.

[Athenadog]

How big is the crate he is in? If it's too big, that could be part of the reason he's peeing in it. I had to downsize twice when I got my dog. It should be big enough to stand, turn around, and lie down comfortably. Also, make sure you remove water and food at 7pm. This will help at night, but you still definitely have to get up in the middle of the night for a while.

As for the biting/snapping, have you seen the episode where Victoria almost "squeaks" at the dog that bites too hard? It's the way puppies communicate to each other when they've gone too far. If you are playing with him and he nips, I'd "squeak" at him cross my arms and ignore him. Also make sure you have lots of chew toys. He needs to exercise those jaws and better it be toys than your hands.

My parents got my twin brother and I our boxer puppy when we were about 5 years old. He was my best friend and playmate until he died.

As for training, puppies, (especially boxers) have a super short attention span. Don't expect him to "stay" for more than a couple seconds at first. It has to be a short enough time so that you can praise and release him. If you leave it too long and he gets up it defeats the purpose. Also, try to find something that motivates him. Whether it's treats, squeaky toys, whatever. That might help you keep his attention longer.

Good luck with him. Boxers are wonderful dogs, but I'm partial

[emilysouthwest]

I feel like at least a couple of these responses towards the top are a bit judgmental and not particularly helpful. Owning a puppy is such a learning process and everybody but the most experienced trainers will "mess up" or be at a loss from time to time. That is why we have forums like this. Although I think that the advice to consider returning the dog to the breeder is valid, I don't think that is the only option in this case. The problems that the boxer is having are pretty typical of puppies, especially high-energy breeds like boxers, and it seems that the owners are putting in an honest effort to raise the pup to be a happy, healthy puppy. Certainly, they face constraints like full-time jobs and such, but many people have to work full-time jobs and still manage to be great dog owners.

What it comes down to is that this puppy is going to be a handful for at least a year and particularly in the next few months. The owners have to decide whether they want to put in the enormous time and effort it will take to train the puppy. However, I think they can do it.

I think the advice about crate size (should only be enough room to lie down and turn around for now) and squealing and ignoring the dog when it bites is great. I think he actually left his litter a bit early (8-12 weeks is optimum), meaning that he didn't have as much time to learn bite inhibition from his litter mates.

I would also add that you should avoid, for now, playing high-contact games with the puppy like tug-of-war and such. You might try games like fetch, where you can actually sit on a chair or the couch with the puppy on the floor. Don't have the children play on the floor with the dog at all, as this will encourage him to see them as fellow puppies to rough house with. Also, you might consider getting a Cong if you don't already have one. It will help him to concentrate, it will stimulate, and it will allow him to expend some of that energy.

Also, do you have a timeout area--maybe his crate? If he associates his crate with sleep, you might be able to put him in it when he becomes too riled--not as a punishment, but as a signal that it is time to calm down. Make sure that you keep the association positive if you do use the crate as a timeout. You need to make sure that he doesn't perceive going in there as a punishment.

The good news about the urinating is that week-by-week, his bladder capacity will increase. I actually do think it is reasonable to expect that at 10 weeks he can hold his bladder for 5 hours at night if water has been removed in advance. Last summer, I fostered a 7 week-old, tiny puppy who was recovering from Parvo and, as I recall, she was able to hold her bladder from about 12 until 5 at night. She also was able to hold her bladder while in her crate from about 8:00 till 12:00 while I was at work. Of course, puppies will "mess up" from time to time and that is okay. Otherwise, the rule goes that until the dog is house trained, when he is out of his crate he should be taken out after every meal, every nap, and maybe every two hours or so in between.

Finally, I would definitely recommend puppy training classes with a reputable rewards-focused trainer.