How many hourse can a Boxer be Left Alone

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ageohar

Boxer Pal
Can anyone help with the following questions:
How many hours a day can a boxer be left alone, as a puppy and as an adult?
As an adult how would you leave him? In a crate or free at home or at the garden?

Many thanks

ageohar
 

boxerlove45

Boxer Buddy
home alone

it depends on the age of your pup.For mine my 4yr old up to 4 hrs not crated my 1 yr old not more then 2 hours not crated andmy other 2 under a yr they are crated.So it really depends on the age or on the dog.How old is yours?
 

gmacleod

Elusive Moderator
Staff member
A general rule of thumb for the maximum amount of time a dog can be crated, or left without a potty stop, in hours, is the age in months + 1 to a maximum of 8 hours for an adult. Do bear in mind that those are *maximum* times, and not every individual is going to be able to endure the maximum for their age (nor, actually, is every dog capable of ever hanging on as long as 8 hours). Holding on that long also isn't great for health (or comfort) - so if you don't absolutely have to ask it of your dog - don't.

As for crating... the crate is primarily a housetraining tool. My dog hasn't seen the inside of one (other than for travelling) since about 11 months of age (started learning to be out of it, so far as his housetraining would allow, from about 4 months).
 

ageohar

Boxer Pal
Many thanks for your replies. She is 5 weeks and not yet with us. We are complete novice. Until she will be 3-4 months, there will be somebody in the house most of the time. But after that she'll need to be (after a good walk and run in the park) about 6-8 hours at home, alone, 3-4 times a week. We heard and read some horror stories about making their business at home, as a protest, and strong separation anxiety tendencies, especially with Boxers, as they love, so much, to be with people. Would you say this is very usual or just exceptions? What is your experience? Any advice? Thanks!
 

gmacleod

Elusive Moderator
Staff member
Separation anxiety doesn't arise because the dog likes to be with people ;) It is an actual psychological disorder, which aflicts a small number of animals and has them unable to be alone. It usually arises in adolescence, and is more likely to occur in dogs whose psychological development was stunted by being removed from mother and littermates too early.

But it is NOT a normal condition, and no, I don't think large numbers of boxers have psychological defects like this. SA also isn't the boredom and protest barking and self amusement (like chewing) that some people label SA, but which is easily fixed by proper amounts of exercise and training ;)
 

jamkaywill

Super Boxer
Abbie is 1 and half . When she was a puppy my bf and I worked different shifts so she was supervised most of the time when she was left at home. She has free run of the house for about 4 hours at a time then I come home and play with her and let her potty for about forty five minutes before I head back to work. She has only had a couple of accidents and most of the time they were my fault.
 

calimomma

Super Boxer
Both my dh and I work full time and our dogs are crated while we are gone. It's anywhere from 8-9 hours that they are in the crates. We tried leaving them out for an entire week, thinking that they would get used to being out, but they didn't. So we kept coming home to potty messes and things that they'd gotten into.

They've both been crated since they were pups and we've never had any issues with that. Except for when Abbi figured out how to open the crate door....
 

sarah_bailey

Super Boxer
They've both been crated since they were pups and we've never had any issues with that. Except for when Abbi figured out how to open the crate door....


Both our dogs are crated, for about 4 hours at a time.

Like calimomma, Bailey learned to open his cage!! He is now padlocked in, seeing as we saw that he had chewed doorframes, draws, cupboards etc. and everything inside them!!
 
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