Advice Needed - Issue with Our Boxer Girl

[Ileana]

We are searching for a good dog behavior specialist in our area but found no one so far. (Louisville, Kentucky). We'll keep looking, but if any of you has knowledge of someone good I would appreciate the referral.

In the mean time I have allowed Grace to put her paws on my shoulders as she pleases, and to nibble at my ears and lick my face, without pushng her away. Big surprise... she falls asleep! Right there, on my shoulders, after licking for 4-5 minutes! TwoDogs, you were so right! I am so sorry for pushing my baby away for so many months! She must feel awfully insecure...

Mrsrags, what did your behavioralist tell you, if I may ask?

 

[TwoDogs]

We are searching for a good dog behavior specialist in our area but found no one so far. (Louisville, Kentucky). We'll keep looking, but if any of you has knowledge of someone good I would appreciate the referral.

In the mean time I have allowed Grace to put her paws on my shoulders as she pleases, and to nibble at my ears and lick my face, without pushng her away. Big surprise... she falls asleep! Right there, on my shoulders, after licking for 4-5 minutes! TwoDogs, you were so right! I am so sorry for pushing my baby away for so many months! She must feel awfully insecure...

Mrsrags, what did your behavioralist tell you, if I may ask?

As for the behavior specialist, the Humane Society of Kentucky right there in Louisville might be able to offer you some suggestions.

With regards to Grace's nibbling and hugging behavior, now might be a good time to put the behavior on cue and only allow it when you want it. It will be very easy for this to tip over from a way to get comfort to an annoyingly impolite way that she's learned to use to get attention with.

Now that you are getting better about seeing what things make her uneasy, you will be able to do a better job of preventing them from happening. While the behavior might be soothing to Grace and she finds it very rewarding to perform the behavior, it is something that should have limits. There will be times when you just aren't able to let it happen, and Grace needs to know that and develop a different and more socially acceptable way of getting what she needs and wants from you, including any comfort it might give her.

My dogs do it to me too, but they know they can't do it willy-nilly. That is not me being mean, it is just a fact of life--sometimes my arms are full, sometimes I have a sore back. Consider offering her an alternative to the full-body hug. Perhaps some nice massage while all four feet are on the floor, or some calming chest rubs while you coo softly to her.

 

[BoozerBaby]

BoozerBaby

I sure hope I am doing this right,what advice I received when I got my bot was to make him sit look right into his face and tell him bad boy mama's mad at you that's bad boy,it worked very well with my boy,he really never liked hearing those words.He was such a good boy we are affraid we might get a mischief boxer next time.

Hello everyone,

Our Grace is the sweetest boxer puppy: exhuberant, happy, full of energy beyond belief. She has excellent guard dog instincts and she is very trainable. She mastered the standard obedience instruction: sit, down, stay, come (90% success rate ), off, leave it, and so on. She even handles more complex commands, as "get in the car, to your place, and sit."

But... she is acting very strange with other dogs, and even with some humans.

With other dogs, the first few minutes she is super happy, wiggles, licks the other dog to death, then starts growling and pawing the other dog, and, well, not all dogs enjoy this. Sometimes she even growls angrily. She never bit anyone, but sometimes I feel she would bite if we wouldn't be there to intervene.

With some humans, as of a few days ago, she started to do the same. After wiggling and licking the humans she meets for a few minutes, the moment they get a bit too familiar wih her, she growls or even snarls at them. If the person backs away, she calms down instantly. She only does this with some people - not sure what her criteria are.

She is quite the head turner - very pretty, so a lot of people want to pet her...

Has anyone ever encountered that with their female boxer? Please help - all advice welcome as we are running out of options. We went to puppy school twice, to socialize her fully, but have seen very little improvement. We did motivational and clicker training with her, nothing involving brutal maneuvers or anything like that.

Please help!
Much appreciated...

 

[ouesi]

The thing about punishing a growl, is that all you do is end up silencing a dog's early warning system and now you have a dog who lashes out without warning.
I've worked with enough dogs who have had their warning systems suppressed to tell you it is NOT fun to have to be hyper vigilant for the slightest lip tightening or body stiffening. Growls are much easier to detect!

I'm not saying its okay for a dog to growl at a human, but its way better to be growled at than bitten

Instead it seems to work better to address the reason behind the growl. Deal with what is causing the dog to growl - usually insecurity/uncertainty/fear, and the growl will go away on its own.

One of our dogs was very growly when our latest rescue came home. She was *very* unsure about this new dog. The more she saw that we in fact did have control over him, the more the growling diminished. We never punished her for growling, simply removed her or the new dog from the situation. IOW, we listened to her early warning system and honored her cries of "I don't like this", so she never felt the need to escalate.

 

[mrsrags]

Well my behavioralist said a lot of what was said on a lot of these posts! We talked a lot about dog behavior, and that what they are doing isn't bad behavior, it is a normal response for these dogs in the situation that they are in. My Gus has issues with anxiety and when I took him to the behaviorist, it was SO evident! We talked about how we are 100% in control of what our dog is allowed to be exposed too Thye talked about setting him up for success by setting up controlled positive greetings. If someone comes to our house now we are teaching Gus to go to his crate when he hears the door bell. Then we greet our guest and allow him time to "warm up"......if its someone familiar we let him out, if its someone new we give him about 5 minutes, and if it is someone that is afraid or leary of animals we do not let them meet. he told me if we are walking and someone wants to pet him, to simply say 'no', until we work on his positive greetings. It seems to be making a positive difference so far. There were tons of other things that we talked about! It made me feel 100% better after we met, he gave me ideas that are we can do and will hopefully make a difference. I wish you luck in your hunt to find one! I started with humane society and they referenced me to a website that showed all the certified people in the state!