My Boxer.....Need Advice

[1ADAM12]

Hello! First I would like to introduce myself. My name is Adam and I am new here and I am looking for some advice from the experts out there or anyone that has expierence with "The Boxer"

My wife and I did a lot of research about the breed before getting Bosco (he is our Boxer). My wife has had many dogs growing up and has expierence so we are not new to the dog scene. We wanted a dog that would be good with children since my wife was pregnant at the time we purchased Bosco.

When our baby Kate arrived Bosco welcomed her with open paws :) and has been her best friend ever since. Kate is now almost 2 and they are inseperable. Bosco is now just over 2.

Now here is my problem. Bosco has become very overprotective of Kate and my wife to the point he is scaring me. If Bosco does not like you he becomes very agressive. I know he is just protecting my daughter and wife and to a point this is good. I just dont need him taking someones arm off.....lol Now when I am around he is fine. Its almost like he knows I can take care of myself but its a whole different story with my wife and daughter.

In all the research we did we never came across anything saying this breed was agressive. We actually read nothing but good things about boxers. Am I over reacting or should I be concerned? Is this normal for Bosco to be overprotective of my daughter and wife? I just dont want any of my friends or other family members getting hurt and then having to get rid of Bosco because he bit someone.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Adam

[Canis erectus]

Welcome to the forum Adam.

In my experience Boxers are one of those breeds that have a natural territorial/guarding instinct, you have to keep in mind that they are a mastiff-type breed. You have to stay in control of them (this goes for any dog of course) or they will get too big for their britches and the owners end up dealing with aggression issues.

My thoughts are that Bosco thinks he's in control and is calling the shots as to what he's going to guard and how he's going to do it. It may be that you are still the alpha in his eyes, but not your wife and daughter, which may be why does this behavior with them and not you (I'm assuming that he isn't showing aggression toward you).

I'd suggest getting started on NILIF (Nothing In Life Is Free) training right away and get your wife involved in the training as well. This will show him that the humans of the household are higher-ranking in the pack than he is. You also need to correct ANY aggressive behavior toward visitors/strangers and reward him for good social transactions. There are people on this forum, some who are professional, trainers who can explain the specifics far better than I, and hopefully they can give you some better advice.

At home training may not be enough, you may want to consider seeing a behavioralist to help you out.

[Canis erectus]

LOL, thanks DO. I wanted to post that link in my reply, but then I got off track... LOL, It sucks having a short attention span. :roll:

[Aroura]

You are right to be concerned, Boxers are a large breed and are capable of a lot of damage, you've gotta nip this in the bud before something disasterous happens.

Boxers are a guarding breed, so it is natural for them to want to guard you. My last Boxer was from aggressive lines (though I only found that out after I started seeing problems and rang the breeder, who wasn't at all suprised :roll: ) and was taunted by the neighbours kids when no one was looking (stupid neighbours should watch their kids! No, I should say "control" because the kids got away with it even when the neighbours were watching...). Anyway, long story short, she became uncontrolably aggressive towards children to the point that if I was walking her and she saw one a block away I would have to grab onto the nearest tree so she didn't drag me off and attack the poor child. I took her to behaviourists and tried everything, but ultimately she had to be PTS to prevent her from killing someone. Very sad, I still miss her to this day :cry:

I've got another Boxer now, Merlin. He's an absolute darling. He'll be 6 months at the end of this month and is already nearly as heavy as Lily was when she was full grown. He started puppy preschool at 8 weeks of age and has gone on to puppy classes at our dog club and came 3rd out of a class of about 25, so he did well (Lily came second when she did it, but the class was smaller). Boxers are very clever dogs, they are also very emotionally connected to their humans. Never train them using harsh methods as they are generally a very sensetive breed and may rebel (such as Lily rebelling to little children due to being taunted by them). Pay the money to see a reputable animal behaviourist, who uses positive methods, they should be able to work through some exercises with you to get Bosco to accept strangers better. Combined with the NILIF technique you should be able to get this under control, as I said, Boxers are very intellegent and connected to their humans, so with the right techniques you should be able to get yours to behave accordingly to the situation. Don't worry that Bosco wont protect you when needed, I have never met a Boxer that couldn't read anyone like a book, they know what a persons intentions are :wink: