A new Boxer pup has joined our family!

[SamsDad]

After several months of research and visiting with dogs of many breeds our family added a new member this weekend. An 8 week old female Boxer named Samantha (Sammy). This is the first dog to join our family though she is not our first addition (Our family includes 2 Guinea Pigs, 2 human children, Samantha and my wife and I).

During our research we have delved into training techniques, house training techniques & crate training techniques to name a few.

We understand that it is particularly important with Boxers to use positive reinforcement as they do not respond well to domineering and heavy handed discipline, but we are left with some questions.

The predominant training theme that we have noted for boxers seems to be to "Praise enthusiastically & give treats" for good behavior and to provide "firm correction" for unacceptable behavior... and to be consistent.

Our question is this: what is acceptable "firm correction" when training with positive reinforcement?

We are hoping for some clarification of the seemingly contradictory advice that we have encountered. Some advice indicates that we should not provide "firm correction" to Samantha when she has a housebreaking accident, but we have seen other literature that indicates that we should provide "firm correction" before taking her outside for a chance to complete her business. Any pearls of wisdom?

Also in regards to tail docking, is there any reason that this *should* be done for the dog's sake? I am aware that the tail must be docked for US AKC competition, however; we do not intend to compete with Sammy. She is a companion and family member and being 8 weeks old, if there is no beneficial reason for docking her I would prefer to forego causing her the trauma (She also is not clipped).

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Eric J]

I highly reccommend Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson and The Dog Listener by Jan Fennel. Great books. The best way I have read/seen to be firm, is when they do something bad ignore it and only praise the good. If they continue, and you cant distract the bad (say biting your pant leg over a toy that you offer) you give a time out, wich is NEVER in the crate if you use one, but either in a seperate area with no people, or just fold your arms across your chest and look up at the ceiling for a few mins. Boxers want attention, and denying it, shows that if they do the right things, they get attention, the bad things deny attention, and they will stop doing that.

 

[Atlas]

I also agree with Eric. Grab a copy of the Culture Clash. It is a great book.

What I think is the best correction is to ignore your dog when he/she has exhibited a behavior that you don't want. Boxers crave attention and not giving it to them is the best way for them to understand that they have done the wrong thing.

Never correct a dog for having an accident in the house, especially if you haven't seen it. He/she wont understand what they have done wrong. When they go outside praise and reward with treats.

Boxers tails are usually docked at around 3 days. At eight weeks you wont be able to perform the surgery.

 

[Tulsa-Dan]

I would also recommend those two books as MUST READ books for training your boxer.

As for firm correction, the correction I use most of the time is to say "Uh Oh!" and turn my back on the dog when we are trying to learn a new command.

When the dog misbehaves or is defiant, the WORST thing I do to them is isolate them from the rest of the pack (me and the other dog -- its a small pack here ). I don't yell or discipline them in any other way. I simply take the offending dog, put her in the bathroom and close the door until she has "learned her lesson" which is usually about 15 to 20 minutes. Then I let her out and ignore her until I think she's calmed and understands that the behavior she exhibited is unacceptable.

But, again, I highly recommend "The Culture Clash" by Jean Donaldson and "The Dog Listener" and "The Practical Dog Listener" by Jan Fennell. They will prove to be your most valuable resources in training your dog.

Good luck and congratulations on the new pup. We can't wait to see pictures.

 

[Eric J]

I went to bed last night and remembered one point I had forgotten to mention. I see Dan touched on it briefly. Just as important as the marker for doing something right (praise and then treat) is a marker for when something is wrong.

For example, you are working on a 10 second sit/stay. The dog does it great 2 times in a row, you praise and then treat. The 3rd time the dog lasts 7 seconds, you then say a negative marker (Uh-Oh) that the dog will learn is a sign of doing the wrong thing and not getting a treat for the unwanted behaviour. Between Ut-Oh and Attaboy the dog will soon learn from marker if it is immediately doing the right thing in training.

 

[SamsDad]

Thank you for the response

Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond. We tried some of the advice provided tonight.

Ignoring seems particularly effective with Sammy. She started some pant leg chewing tonight. First we tried distracting her with a chew toy... no go. So we stepped away from her, crossed our arms and stared at the ceiling.

She immediately started yipping and grunting, frantically trying to attract attention. When she realized that we would not give her the attention she wanted, she sullenly sat at our feet at which point we praised her and gave her a toy to play with.

Isolation turned out to be another thing altogether. After a particularly bad bite, we decided to isolate her in a bathroom. She immediately started to throw an all out temper tantrum which included a nice little package of pee and poop which she tracked ALL over the bathroom. She hadn't even been in there for 3 minutes.

Seems like our biggest problem is probably going to be getting her to stop nipping things that aren't meant to be nipped. She is already responding to crate training, she will enter the crate of her own will for a "break" during the day, and will enter the crate (With varying degrees of reliability) when told to "go to bed". Her bathroom tantrum was the first house training accident that we had today, so it seems we are also making progress on the house training front too (I realize that we still have a LONG way to go on both fronts, but any progress this soon is encouraging to me though).

Again thanks for the assistance.