Boxer Talk

Hi, i popped in a while ago, commenting on how great your website is and that i have a boxer puppy, Diesel. He's now 10 months old. He's very good and hasn't chewed anything, well nothing major anyway. My partner and i love him to bits and can't imagine it without him. We take him to dog class every week, where he learns to sit, stay, walk well on the lead and basic obedience stuff. He has always been great with other dogs and is always off the lead in parks and is fine, but recently i've noticed that his fur goes up and he sort of puts his chest out towards other dogs. He's started growling a little at dogs and barking at them. He hasn't gone for them, but i am a little worried about this. He's started doing it in class and he quietly growled under his breath at a man who was standing next to me. He also barks and stares at anyone who comes close to us when i'm walking him on my own. He wouldn't hurt a fly and is so gentle and lovely, but i just want to be able to stop this habit now, in case it might get worse as he gets older. Any advice? Thanks.

My bitch ruby is two years old and has developed soaqrs near her nose the vets are stumped can you help?

What a lovely website. Boxers become one of the family and it's so hard when they pass away. I really can't wait to have another one (or two) in my life.

Hi folks,

This will be a terribly long post to reply to you all, so sorry for that and sorry I've not been around of late. I just seem to be very, very busy.

Gemma,

Hi there, it's good to see you too, thanks for stopping by.


Margaret!

Hey it's really nice to hear from you again. Sounds like you had a bit of an adventure or at least Boris did and wasn't too keen on having it without you by his side.

It may be he's just a bit insecure, he's only just got you and suddenly he's in another strange new place and eek! You looked like leaving him ALONE there.

Could maybe also explain his squeaky tummy.

Sorry you never got any time to go out though. As I say , god to hear from you, take care and give Boris a hug for me!


Hi Gail! Sounds like you're having a but of an adventure too. A new dog and all. I'm sure your right and Candy will get over not being the only star of the house soon enough.

A word of advice though, probably best to treat Candy as the top dog, she gets any food, attention or whatever first and maybe more of it.

Anyhow sounds like your having great fun with the new arrival. Oh and thanks for the compliments.


Liz, Hi there, yes I remember Diesel.

I think perhaps there's some extent to which the behaviour your experiencing is normal for a male dog. That being said when it's a worry to you it is likely bad enough to need controlling.

I'm not entirely sure how best to do that, but though some training for sure. And probably involving socialising him. Though it does sound like you do plenty of that, socialising him with other dogs i mean.

Maybe ask at the dog class if there are specific lessons he could take for this? Also ask the trainer what they think of the behaviour you've described.

Sorry I'm not too great a help but best of luck Liz. Diesel sounds like a star.


Martin,

Well, hmm, I really don't know, does the vet seem worried by these sores? Are they like acne? Has Ruby been nosing at something unusual you know of?

Once again sorry I'm not much help but I'm stumped, I do hope it clears up or isn't much of a concern for Ruby though.

Best of luck Martin!


Hey Kevin!

Very nice of you to say so, and I wholeheartedly agree with you. I just hope you can have another boxer or maybe two in your life soon. Thank you!


Thanks to all of you for commenting, it's always great to meet other Boxer nuts. I'll try not to take so long to answer again but times really difficult at the moment.

Paul

Thanks Paul. I will get some advice from the dog trainers, see what they think. Hopefully he'll snap out of it. Thanks again.

this site is soooooooooooo kwl and the puppies r unbelievably cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a good site, took me an hour to read all the postings tho.! I grew up with boxers, my dad used to breed them (in a small way), so having 5 or 6 of them around all the time wasn't unusual. As an adult, I've been owned by three of them, Charlie; a brindle dog who enriched my life for 11 years, Jazz a beautiful little white girl who I loved for 10 years, and Lewis,( who looked so much like Charlie, it was spooky!) who was 5 when I got him from a rescue center, and was Jazz's best friend for 3 short years before cancer stole him from us. He spent a lot of those years licking Jazz's one brown ear because he was sure it was dirty!! Some of the posting on here, and the stories of your own dogs brought tears to my eyes, partly because I just had to let Jazz be put to sleep 3 days ago due to a tumor in her brain, and partly because the stories from other people remind me so much of my own 3 best friends it's uncanny. Boxers really are God's gift to us! To Liz; Diesel's behaviour is because he thinks he's the Beta dog in your pack (2nd in command) and as such, he sees it as his responsibility to protect you when the two of you are together, without the Alpha (your partner). Sorry if that sounds sexist, but that's the way dogs think, and boxers who are naturally protective anyway, do tend to take it to extremes. You need to make him realise that YOU'RE the beta, and that he's below you in the pecking order, so he wont feel as obliged to protect you. And for anyone who's dog pulls too hard, try a Halti, the dog isnt happy with it for the first 10 minutes, but after that, he learns that if he pulls, his chin goes down to his chest, and he has no choice but to walk properly, they do look like muzzles (which is bad) but they really do work (which is good) and dont hurt the dog at all (which is the most important.) DAMN, I love boxers! I'm on the look out now for my new "owner", because I just can't imagine life without one of them (probably 2 actually). Great site, keep up the good work.

Hello again Paul,

Just dropped in to say that things are going great with Boris. In fact he is a real treat. He is very easy to train. As you can imagine at the age of 18 months he is very active but he can be so good I went out to the clothes line this morning to hang out a line of washing and he came out with me and sat beside me for the whole time. I was very impressed. We are going to bring him (and ourselves) to Classes soon.
Will let you know how we get on.
I went through your photots again this morning and I now have your Jason as my screen saver. Gave my husband a digital camera for Christmas and it is still in the box so the prospect of putting a photo of "Boris" up on my computer is still a myster to me. But I must say I am perfectly happy with Jason as my screen saver. Bye for now. Margaret.

Hi Paul,
That last message from "Guest" was in fact from me, don't know what I did wrong but anyway it was me. Bye gain.
Margaret.

we have a 1 year old boxer dog "Alfie" he has just had the big snip we thinking about getting another boxer bitch for him to play with has anyone got any advice about having 2 boxers

for Taylor, Yes, do it.! I normally have 2, I think it's much better for them to have 1, a companion for when you're at work, and 2, someone who can run as fast as they can when your out for walks. Watching 2 of them chasing each other and playing together will always make you smile. Because Alfie is already established in your house, you want to get a younger dog, or better yet, a puppy, that way, he'll help rear and train her with you without getting bolshie about the new arrival. Also, even tho he'll be bigger and stronger, she'll have him wrapped around her finger (paw) within a fortnight! Bitches always rule the roost when you've got one of each.!

Hey there Hayley, thanks for popping by!


Steve, Hi there!

Really nice to meet you, and interesting post too but I was sorry to read about Jazz though, it's hard. Specially when you're left with no dogs at all.

I hope you you find yourself another Boxers soon Steve and thanks for posting such good advice.


Hey Margaret!

I would have guessed it was yourself anyhow. Sounds like you got real lucky with Boris, doesn't sound like he'll have any difficulties with classes. I've got a feeling he'll be a A+ student.

Jason will be awfully impressed with this news he's on your screen saver, he already has a rather large opinion of himself and this will only inflate it further. Speaking of which he was playing with a little Boxer puppy cousin at the weekend. I'll probably post about that more next time.

You take care now.


Hello Taylor!

I would agree with Steve, it was good advice. I don't see why you shouldn't have another dog. Provided you have the resourses.

Naturally to some extent it would be more of a challenge than looking after one dog. In my experience it's also been very rewarding though.

Take care folks!

Paul

hi again paul, well granny loves and i mean loves granddaugther now - there like 2 peas in a pod, it was a waste of time me buying an extra bed as they always curl up together now - i knew she'd come round in the end! The new arrival is a little star so well behaved although she eat my partners 250year old bible - have you even known someone to absorb so much information in one sitting - A Bible!!! but apart from that she is a dream, i forgot what a handfull a young boxer can be - walkies time is certainy more entertaining now - she got her first dog training class tonight - should be "ER INTERESTING" ha ha. its as if they have been friend forever!! so cute! take care.

hi, sorry to here about your very CUTE dog.=( well, i have a 3 year old chihuahua and we were thinkg about getting a boxre, are they aggressive dogs? or will they get along fine if they know them when their pups?

Hi Paul, me again. We had a very interesting weekend indeed. Brought Boris out walking on hills at back of house on Saturday, we are very careful about not letting him off the lead around sheep etc., anyway there wasn's a sheep in sight so John let him off, next minute he was gone flying down the hill, we called and called and he wouldn't come back, there was no way we could catch him, the next thing we see sheep running across the hills and Boris after them, at this stage we were struck with panic, then he went out of sight, our neighbour was dipping sheep at the Sheep Dip and when we got to it there was Boris doing his impersonation of a sheep dog and he had one of the sheep separated from the flock and he was rounding her up, as you can imagine we were in blind terror at this stage. I called him and he eventually came to us and I have to say that Joe (the Farmer and our neighbour) was wonderful. I know he could have insisted that we get him put down but no his comment was "he's grand not a bother he was only playing with the yew", anyone else would have been livid and rightly so. As you can see we have wonderful neighbours. As you can imagine we have learned a good lesson, no more off the lead, it wasn't Boris' fault, it was ours'. Anyway all's well that ends well and maybe we have a good "sheep dog in the making", we could hire him out !!!!, only kidding. Hope all is well with you. Jason is looking very well on my screensaver. Talk soon. Margaret.

I can't believe it I just wrote a hug long post and then hit the reset button.

Lost the whole thing and haven't the time to rewrite it at the moment. I'll try to a later tonight.

Well here goes again.

Hi Gail, that's great news, very happy to hear Granny and Grand Daughter are getting on so well. Not so happy you lost what just may be the most ancient bible in Christendom. Still I'm sure your local Church will be impressed with her ravenous interest.

Hope the first class went well, I bet it was good fun.

Hi there Luisa!

I don't think there's any reason to think there would be a problem with getting a Boxer. Certainly you can get aggressive Boxers. However only in so much as you can get aggressive dogs of any breed.

As a breed Boxers certainly don't have a fearsome reputation. A word I often hear mentioned in relation to them is "clown".

So I think everything would be fine.

Thanks for stopping by!


Hey Margaret!

Wow life's an adventure with Boris and no mistake. I can certainly appreciate how you must have felt. Having been through similar things. Jason as a youngster got onto a road at peak traffic time and had the traffic backed up as far as I could see.

He just wouldn't come back to me and of course i was hysterical which didn't make him any more willing. Every time he started running up and down the road or a car tried to get past him I thought I'd loose him.

Well, in any case I'm very glad you have a decent, sensible neighbour Margaret. Because as you say, I believe farmers are quite within their rights to shoot loose dogs on the spot if they want to.

He seems like a nice guy though. And I reckon he was quite right too, because I don't really think Boris would have known what to do with a Ewe if he managed to corner one. I doubt very much he would have actually done any harm.

Alls well that ends well eh? I'm happy it worked out ok.

You're story also reminds me of an incident with Muffin and a stag which had her dodging in and out between it's legs.

Jason, well, he's not been too great actually. Last Friday he was asking out when he shouldn't really have needed to go. On one of those occasions I never got him out in time, which was lucky as I might never have noticed otherwise that he had blood in his urine.

That is to say other than wanting out a bit more there was nothing obviously wrong with him. He didn't seem in any pain at all or out of sorts in any way.

Needless to say I was pretty worried.

He's been to the vet's since then and he reckons it's most likely an ulcer. Though it could possibly be something worse. Prime candidate is an ulcer though.

So he got a couple of shots, a rectal examination which he was a bit non plussed about. And some antibiotics to take over the next couple of weeks.

It had seemed to clear up (No more blood.) by the end of the next day. And he never did seem to be upset in any way. So hopefully it won't occur again or if it does all it is is an ulcer.

Say hi to Boris for me!

Paul

hi,
just what is it about boxers? i have a 2yr old boy called piper. if he could talk h would sound like eeyore! so stupid, yet loyal, protective and above all dribbly!!!!! brilliant site...love the piccies.
thanx

Well, I WAS going to wait a while beore getting another boxer, the loss of Jazz tore a hole in my heart and life that "normal" people can't understand, only the sort of people that visit this site can relate to how life without a boxer is, once you've known it WITH one. I just put a deposit down on two red brothers, they're only 3 weeks old at the moment, so I've gotta wait another 5 weeks or so, but I can barely wait. Of course, there's the house training, the lead-training, the "I'm the leader of this pack, not you.." training, but that's all part of the fun and experience. They're not Jazz's replacements- no dog could ever replace your last one,( nor should they be bought for that reason.) but they'll be page 1 in the next chapter of my boxer life.

Steve good luck with "the brothers", I am sure they will be wonderful and I know you did the right thing. Our hearts were broken when Suzy passed away she was everything to us but Boris has certainly kept us "on our toes" to say the least since we got him. He doesn't give us much time to brood. Good luck again.

Hi Paul, I was so sorry to hear that Jason wasn't in top form. Lucky you spotted it so quickly. Has he finished his antibiotics? and how is he now? I will be thinking about him, of course I think about him every day as I see him first thing every morning and last thing every evening and what a joy he is to behold.

We are looking forward to another weekend with Boris, hopefully it will not be as eventful as the last one. Met my neighbour Farmer Joe the other evening and he was with his sheep again and I asked him "do you need a good sheep dog by any chance", thankfully he found this amusing. Will let you know how the weekend pans out. Really only popped in to say "chin up" to Jason and hope he will be "on top form" very soon. Bye for now Margaret.

Hi, I got my boxer (all white) from a rescue centre in August 05, hes male and approx 2 years old and really really lovely....except he keeps running off and will not come back unless he is physically dragged! Every time we open our front door he runs off down the street, hes not trying to escape from us (hopefully not anyway) but he wants to be chased. He cant be left to come back by himself which he probably would in the end because we live on a busy road and he darts out in front of cars and heaven help any other poor dog that happens to be out as he'll chase them as well. Has anyone got any ideas as to how to deal with this as Im at my wits end and is really embarassing!

Domino, it's all about training, and there are no short-cuts Im afraid. He hasn't been with you long, so you may not have the pecking order of your "pack" established yet. He needs to learn that you'r top dog, and that he should do as you say. Take him to a wide open space, let him gallop around for a bit until he's ready to listen, then start him with "sit & stay" walk a little bit from him then call him to you and reward him when he comes, you can increase the distance you walk away bit by bit. He'll do this first 'cos he likes games, then he'll learn that coming when you call him will mean praise and a treat. Dont ever lose your temper and shout at him to come back, because he'll just stay away, after all, would you come back to a scolding?!
The training may take some time, but it'll come together sooner or later. In the meantime, maybe a child gate between the living room and the front door to stop him bolting when you answer the doorbell, and when you're taking him out, put his collar and lead on, take him to the front door and make him "sit/stay" for a minute or three before you open the door, then keep him there with the door open before you go out (remember, you walk through all doors first, not him).- He wants to go out, but will soon learn that the door wont be opened unless he's sat still, and even then, he's only gonna go for a walk when YOU decide. Good luck.

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Hi Pelsh,

You've been very polite and indeed your services might interest those here. So I'll leave all the links in your post.

No thanks on the reciprocal link though, your site isn't really about Boxers. Once again thanks for the polite offer though.

Hi Fiona,

thanks fro dropping by, good of you to comment.

Steve,

Glad you took the plunge, you don't sound like the sort of person that should be without a dog. In fact someone as capable as yourself should definitely have two. So I'm glad you got them, how's it going so far?

Also thanks for helping Domino out, it was a far better answer than I could have given.

Margaret,

Thanks, Jason finished his pills middle of last week and he's seemed fine the whole time. So it was probably nothing serious. I'm glad to be able to say.

Thankyou Steve for your advice, we have tried out some of your tips and they do seem to be working so I'll stick with it.