Our Flashy Fawn boxer is now 9 months old and we have had him since he was 8 months. We have taken Jacko to puppy obedience as well at level 1 obedience classes which he has passed. Since he had his 2nd set of shots we have had him socialized with other dogs in and out of obedience classes. Jacko is obviously very playful and wants to just "box" any dog he plays with. The smaller dogs are not as willing to "box" as much as the bigger dogs, which is expected. Anyways, he seems to be starting to show signs of dominance but he is very random, we have not been able to pin down when or what he will do to react. When I take him for on and off leash time (depending where I am) he will sometimes lock his eyes onto another dog and pull on the leash towards them, sometimes he will start barking at the dogs. If he is calm we let Jacko say hello, otherwise we keep walking and he relaxes as we pass. We have been working with the "focus" command as well as the "leave it" command. If I anticipate what he is about to do and distract him, majority of the time this works. Because of this, we have put him into daycare a few days a week in order to help socialize him and teach him manners towards other dogs, the other days Jacko is crate trained, or we have close family come over to let him out to free play in the back yard and take him on walks. The minimum amount of mental stimulation (working on his sit, stay, lay down, leave it etc.) or exercise he gets is 4.5 hours a day.
The daycare situation is getting very unpredictable with him. Some days we will drop Jacko off in the morning and he will spend the day there with no behavioral issues. Other days we will pick him up to find out that he got in a "fight" with other dogs and when the girls there tried to break it up, he would go from 0-5 in seconds and turn around and snap at them. This has been described as a level 1 bite where he opens and closes his mouth at the girls showing them that he knows he is not suppose to act like this but the heat of the moment causes him to do this. My hubby and I as well as the daycare is concerned that this could escalade at any time depending on how intense the situation is that he is in. He has had maybe 15 visits there now and recently it has been about half of the time that Jacko has escalated from 0-5 in seconds. In the full or half day that he is there this happens maybe once or twice. He is not always the dog that starts the "fights" but is defiantly the dog that will react to a situation and not know when to settle down or stop. The girls have tried different situations, like not taking him off leash right away and wondering around with Jacko until he has said hello to all the dogs before he is let off leash, or just randomly been taken away from play time and put into a quiet room to show that the girls have the control over him, and he can't control them. We have even brought in our trainer for an hour to the daycare to get him to observe Jacko in order to help the girls on what to do in these situations. We have started to notice that he becomes "aggressive" when he gets frustrated and over whelmed. His mind is racing so fast and hasn’t learned how to control himself properly.
Jacko turns his "come" recall or any sort of recalls into a game where he decides he wants to bounce around barking and growling at you so you chase him. This has been an ongoing battle for us. I must say that this does not happen all the time. There are times where he would be playing away and you call him or say come and he stops what he is doing and comes running. I know that Jacko is still young and this kind of situation will take time, I am not expecting this to be perfected at his age.
Yesterday I ran Jacko to our local coffee shop to meet some friends who Jacko knows very well. We were sitting outside and Jacko was on his best behavior playing with his ball, minding his own business. Then he got frustrated because it has been about 20 minutes since we have been there now. He has realized that he is not moving around much because he only had the length of his leash to move around with. This is my fault I know because being only 9 months old Jacko is full of energy and his attention span for just sitting around is not that long. He decided he did not want to be there anymore, so started to pull backwards on the leash, when that did not make me get up, he started whining and barking. I gave him some attention and settled him down; within a few seconds he was nibbling at my clothes trying to pull my hand. I got up and started to do some mental stimulation (commands) with him to keep his mind busy. Another minute went by and Jacko lost it. He started to use his teeth (not enough to cause any damage but enough that I felt it) on my hands to pull me while barking and jumping around. At this point I am trying to calm him down and using our "settle" command which is where I give him very short leash so he is forced to lie down (which was taught to use during obedience classes). But nothing was working, not even hugging him, or walking around. Once I began walking Jacko began jumping around, it wasn't until I raised my voice at him to "leave it" that he finally settled down. He knew exactly what he did was wrong, and I knew exactly what I did by putting him in that situation where he was sitting for more than 20 minutes was wrong for a young boxer with lots of excess energy needed to burn. Not to mention me raising my voice was wrong too.
But the point I am trying to get at, is that when Jacko becomes frustrated all his commands and positive reinforcement learning has gone out the window and he becomes aggressive towards dogs and humans. This has raised concerns to me and my husband and now the daycare too, that he gets to the point where he acts on these thoughts. Is it only a matter of time before he actually bites someone where it is enough to cause damage, more than just redness? Does anyone have any suggestions on how to calm the boxers mind down once he gets to that stage? Like I said before, if we catch him before anything escalades and anticipate what he is doing than everything is ok and he listens great.
The daycare situation is getting very unpredictable with him. Some days we will drop Jacko off in the morning and he will spend the day there with no behavioral issues. Other days we will pick him up to find out that he got in a "fight" with other dogs and when the girls there tried to break it up, he would go from 0-5 in seconds and turn around and snap at them. This has been described as a level 1 bite where he opens and closes his mouth at the girls showing them that he knows he is not suppose to act like this but the heat of the moment causes him to do this. My hubby and I as well as the daycare is concerned that this could escalade at any time depending on how intense the situation is that he is in. He has had maybe 15 visits there now and recently it has been about half of the time that Jacko has escalated from 0-5 in seconds. In the full or half day that he is there this happens maybe once or twice. He is not always the dog that starts the "fights" but is defiantly the dog that will react to a situation and not know when to settle down or stop. The girls have tried different situations, like not taking him off leash right away and wondering around with Jacko until he has said hello to all the dogs before he is let off leash, or just randomly been taken away from play time and put into a quiet room to show that the girls have the control over him, and he can't control them. We have even brought in our trainer for an hour to the daycare to get him to observe Jacko in order to help the girls on what to do in these situations. We have started to notice that he becomes "aggressive" when he gets frustrated and over whelmed. His mind is racing so fast and hasn’t learned how to control himself properly.
Jacko turns his "come" recall or any sort of recalls into a game where he decides he wants to bounce around barking and growling at you so you chase him. This has been an ongoing battle for us. I must say that this does not happen all the time. There are times where he would be playing away and you call him or say come and he stops what he is doing and comes running. I know that Jacko is still young and this kind of situation will take time, I am not expecting this to be perfected at his age.
Yesterday I ran Jacko to our local coffee shop to meet some friends who Jacko knows very well. We were sitting outside and Jacko was on his best behavior playing with his ball, minding his own business. Then he got frustrated because it has been about 20 minutes since we have been there now. He has realized that he is not moving around much because he only had the length of his leash to move around with. This is my fault I know because being only 9 months old Jacko is full of energy and his attention span for just sitting around is not that long. He decided he did not want to be there anymore, so started to pull backwards on the leash, when that did not make me get up, he started whining and barking. I gave him some attention and settled him down; within a few seconds he was nibbling at my clothes trying to pull my hand. I got up and started to do some mental stimulation (commands) with him to keep his mind busy. Another minute went by and Jacko lost it. He started to use his teeth (not enough to cause any damage but enough that I felt it) on my hands to pull me while barking and jumping around. At this point I am trying to calm him down and using our "settle" command which is where I give him very short leash so he is forced to lie down (which was taught to use during obedience classes). But nothing was working, not even hugging him, or walking around. Once I began walking Jacko began jumping around, it wasn't until I raised my voice at him to "leave it" that he finally settled down. He knew exactly what he did was wrong, and I knew exactly what I did by putting him in that situation where he was sitting for more than 20 minutes was wrong for a young boxer with lots of excess energy needed to burn. Not to mention me raising my voice was wrong too.
But the point I am trying to get at, is that when Jacko becomes frustrated all his commands and positive reinforcement learning has gone out the window and he becomes aggressive towards dogs and humans. This has raised concerns to me and my husband and now the daycare too, that he gets to the point where he acts on these thoughts. Is it only a matter of time before he actually bites someone where it is enough to cause damage, more than just redness? Does anyone have any suggestions on how to calm the boxers mind down once he gets to that stage? Like I said before, if we catch him before anything escalades and anticipate what he is doing than everything is ok and he listens great.
