He wont listen to me!

[xayden]

About 4 days ago i bought my boxer pup, leo. he turns 2 months today. my problem is that he wont listen to me! whenever i call him over he just gives me this blank stare and walks away or lays down. he does follow me and walk right beside me when we take walks (no leash) but it seems whenever i play with him in the backyard or in the house, he does his own thing!

so my question is, how do you train a dog to "come", and also, i read a lot about how boxers need an "alpha male/female owner", how does one go about being the alpha between the two, without making him affaid of me and end up hating me?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[JokersSoul]

Boxers do have a mind of their own!

I would suggest getting a toy that Leo really likes. When you go out to play you should have that as a reward for him coming to you. Or small bits of treats. Reward is a good way to teach.

Good luck... Boxers are brilliant... he will eventually learn.

 

[xayden]

thanks for the reply!

Leo has a rawhide bone he really loves. he will completly ignore me for it. i also have liver treats for him but he dosnt seem to think theyre much of a reward. ispanked him for crapping on my carpet a couple days ago, maybe he hates me now because of that?

 

[JokersSoul]

I don't think he hates you! Make the rawhide his reward for coming to you. Others may have suggestions as to what other treats to try. I have heard bits of chicken or the like works well.

Don't give up!

 

[jrackow]

Please don't spank your puppy for pooping on the carpet. It's not his fault! If he is JUST turning two months, he is WAY too little to be successfuly potty trained. I'm actually surprised you got him as young as you did. But, regardless, you have him. Puppies need to go out a lot. As young as he is, you should take him out after every meal, after every play time, after every nap time, and every couple of hours in between. When he goes potty outside, reward him like crazy with whatever treats he does like. Puppies have signals; if you're watching him like a hawk (which you should, as young as he is), you'll start to be able to see how his demeanor changes when he has to go potty. Then you can scoop him up and run him outside!

As far as coming when he's called, Mojo is 4 months and is still learning that. I agree with pp, give him lots of treats whenever he comes to you, even if you DIDN'T call him. Sometimes we even play a game with Mojo where we just sit in the same room with him, and ignore him, but watch him out of the corner of our eye. When he looks at us, even if just for a second, we give him a treat so he knows that paying attention to us is good.

good luck!!

 

[Cami]

ispanked him for crapping on my carpet a couple days ago, maybe he hates me now because of that?

I am going to try and keep this civil.

I doubt he hates you but he probably has lost all respect for you and is more than likely afraid of what you will do next.

No pup (or dog for that matter) does anything that justifies being spanked and Boxers are an extremely sensitive breed. If this is the method of "correction" you plan on keeping I would rethink keeping your dog. You won't get anywhere and to be honest he is a baby right now but when he reaches adult hood he will be faster and stronger than you are with TEETH that can cause serious damage and jaws that are quite strong. Mistreat your dog and you will get the same behavior in return.

Since doing this you are going to have to work doubly hard to get him over the fact that you can't control your emotions and have no pack leader skills. Would you seriously want to be in close proximity to someone who spanked you for doing something that you had no idea was a problem?

As far as getting him to come to you.....you have to remember first and foremost--HE DOESN'T SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE. He has been in your home for FOUR days. He is still a BABY. Cut him some slack. Arm yourself with the proper tools so that you can help him to understand what it is you want and what type of behavior you are wanting him to display.

You have to provide something for him that is MORE desirable to him than what he has or is doing at that particular moment. If the treats you have are not working try something else. A loud squeaky toy, a BETTER, tastier (smelly) treat. Act like what you have is 100% better than what he has. Almost ignore HIM and give all of your attention to what it is that you have. Make lots of HAPPY noises (high pitched....your friends would think you were insane type noises). Pups typically can't wait to see what the commotion is all about and like to be in the center of the FUN. Once he starts coming to you add the word COME at the same time. PRAISE him when he reaches you. Back up. Say "come" again. Praise. REPEAT. Over and over. Utilize two people at either end of a room/yard. Both arming themselves with treats. Back and forth with the same routine mentioned above.

Put him on a leash. Start walking until you reach the end of the leash. Turn to him and say come (you can give a gentle tug in your direction to start the motion). Once he reaches you PRAISE/TREAT....."good come!!"

Spanking him for going to the bathroom in your home was a waste of time and energy and probably caused some damage to his psyche. He doesn't have a clue that he is supposed to potty outside. It is your job to teach him that. Accidents in the home equals human error.

 

[TwoDogs]

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[Caney Creek]

ispanked him for crapping on my carpet a couple days ago, maybe he hates me now because of that?

Would you spank a 1 year old child for messing on the carpet???

Puppies don't wear diapers. It's the owner's responsibility to take them out on a schedule and keep them well supervised in the house so that accidents don't happen. If you failed to do that, spank yourself, not the puppy. It's not his fault. He needs to be TAUGHT, not punished.

He has only been alive for 8 short weeks. In those weeks he has always been able to poop wherever he wants, whenever he needs to. He doesn't hate you, but he's probably scared of you because he has NO idea that he did something wrong -- to him, it was just a spanking out of nowhere.

 

[xayden]

After reading the replys It did make sense as too why he mite be ignoring me, it was the spank I gave him. I've been trying to play with him lie crazy for the past 2 days and I'm just now noticing he is trusting me again, he's snoring at my feet where when I wrote the first post he was snoring in his box.

This is my first puppy I get to raise onmy own so I'm still getting used to the ropes on te dos and donts. I appologize if I angerd anyone with te "spanking"

One more thing, he is 8 weeks today and weighs in at 11lbs. He's a big boy but, to me, he looks thin. Is his weight normal?

 

[jrackow]

That's a pretty good weight. You should be able to feel his ribs under a thinish layer of fat and skin, but not see them when he's standing. If you can see them, he needs to eat more.

How often are you feeding? How much?