I own a male boxer named Lucien that is about 14 months old. I say about because I have had him for about 4 weeks now. His history is unknown other than the original owners couldn't keep him. I have a few questions I hope someone could help me with.

I want to make sure that what I'm dealing with is a dominance issue. What I've seen in the dominance area is him trying to bolt through doors. One of which he escaped the house and had my husband chasing him through the neighborhood for 2 hours. It was his goal to terrorize every cat in the neighborhood that day, he has very high prey drive. My husband finally cornered him and grabbed him. No growling just backed down and gave in. I have a crate that I used every once in a while but since reading the Ground Work article, Lucien spends the majority of his time in there. I hate it but if that's what we've got to do it's what we've got to do to put him in his place in the pack.

I have 4 children. 3 sons (9, 6, 2) and a daughter 6 months. Lucien is indifferent or subissive to my 2 year old son by moving out of his way, putting his ears back, not staring at him. He will not listen to commands given by him though. Not sure if that's because he has a 2 year old voice or that he doesn't think he has to. He is not obedience trained yet. We are taking everything one step at a time. I plan on getting the obedience dvd and training him that way. I should say that the older boys are only here every other weekend on visitations. So they are almost like visitors to the dog.

He's a great dog but the problem that even brought me here started with my older boys. Right after his neutering, probably the day after, he was standing by my bed while I was on it and my 9 year old was hugging him on the neck when he reared back and I would say tried to nip at him. He didn't growl or bite but it all happened so fast that I just got scared and called for my husband to come and correct the dog. With my 6 year old son he lunged forward when he tried to take a toy away and that one I was there and corrected the dog. My 6 year old also ran off down our hall and the dog took off after him and barked. Okay so this is what I know we did wrong. We babied the dog when we got him because we felt sorry for him. So I am assuming he took on the alpha role. We allowed him through the door first and free roaming in the house. He was allowed in our room, laid on our floor. He was never allowed on the furniture or the beds and if he was caught on the sofa, he was told to get off. Once he challanged me by looking at me after being told to get off but I just grabbed his collar and shoved him off. No, growling or aggression. He was fed in the kitchen not in the crate but was never allowed to be around when we ate. We own a prong collar. I just recently realized that I had it way too loose and that's why he wasn't responding to me during our walks. He is very cat aggressive. I have to correct him everytime we are on walks because of cats in the neighborhood. He's gone from dragging me to get to a cat to being hesitant but complying and whinning to get to the cat. I have not seen him be dog aggressive at all. He has barked at a strange man that was walking toward us on a walk once but it was his first day with us so I don't know what that means really. He's never done it again. He will most of the time ignore children that approach us on walks. Once he showed interest in sniffing a couple of little ones but with me saying come on he came and forgot about it.

What we changed was allowing him free roaming of the house. He is on leash at all times in the house when not in the crate. I tightened his prong collar according to the directions on this site. He is being fed 2x daily in his crate. He is being groomed by us after walks and only when we ask for it he's not allowed to "demand" petting. He's not allowed contact with the children at all right now. He's been allowed fun time with my dh by wrestling and going out on a long lead and running around but nothing off leash.

The questions I have are...how long with the crating? How much house time and crate time? How long is crate time going to be more than house time? How long will he need to be on a leash at all times? When do I start obedience training him? I know that it says to have one alpha but my husband and I share in his responsibility so should this change? He seems to be more bonded to my husband than to me although he does listen to me and respond to me equally.

If I think of anything else I will post it later. Thanks to anyone brave enough to read all this and actually answer.

Kristy

Kristine,
You need to post using both your full first and last name. Please fix that with youir control panel, if you would.
Thanks!

Will Rambeau
Moderator

Fixed...thanks!

Hi, Kristine. Sounds like your new boy is trying to stretch out his britches! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

There are lots of answers to be had here. I still spend a lot of time just catching up on previous conversations.

i just was to say first boxers are my favorite breed my next boxer pup is on order for the summer... gotta love the mush (face)

if he were my boxer he would have started his training o.b wise the first week living in the house with me on leash of course... as far as crate time verses house time ect... im not going to beable to answer that i dont have kids and my dogs all know from puppyhood who the boss is ME and they only get crated when i leave... but i can say as pups they are crated until usually 18 months old to 2 years old until they are 100% trusted not to make their own fun in the house while im gone and not there to supervise !!!! ...

for the how long will he have to be on a leash or long line? every dog is different.... with my boxer at 9 months old (hes passed now) it took me 3 months of letting him drag a leash around the house and yard and walks before i knew he was 100% in his recall and focus on my voice....my gsd's i own now have never had to be on a long line....
and with boxers they usually do bond better with one person more then everyone in the family (not to say there arent exceptions to every rule)... my family had our first boxer when i was five yrs old... she bonded with me best in the whole family but she did love and listen to the rest of the family... one time we boarded her for a week and during a thunder storm she had jumped a 6 ft chain link fence and exscaped.. the owners of the boarding facility could not get her back and called us to come back from vacation early and try to catch her... my dad had to take me with him to get her as she wouldnt go to anyone else... read everything and anything on training you can get your hands on and i would start to look for classes or a dog trainer to help hands on....
a tired dog is a good dog and a dog that sleeps when in the house... this goes for every breed....

hi there:
When my sister had a boxer bitch that was not good with strangers, she was still good with the kids- one was a toddler, and the other about 7-8. That dog knew that the kids, no matter what they did, were not to be aggressed at EVER. My sister made this very clear by her methods of having the dog know who was the leader in the house, and that no matter what happened, the leadership was clear. This ended up with a dog who completely tolerated the kids. It appears to me, from what you have said, that the boxer looks at the kids as foreigners, and certainly not part of the pack, that are ABOVE the kid. One thing I suggest is not to TOTALLY remove your kids from the Boxers's life, but engage the kids, while you are with the Boxer. Teach the kids what dog obedience is about, and work with your Boxer, and the kids. Your kids are certainly old enough to work on sit and down with your Boxer. If they ask the Boxer to sit, and he does not, you enforce the sit. Keep it friendly. Also, don't allow your kids to hang out with him alone, always with you there. In my opinion crating him a lot, and not allowing interaction, which Boxers THRIVE on, as they are VERY into their family, will make him very pent up, and could make things worse. When my sister began crating her dog longer and longer, she became a basket case. Also, LOTS of exercize, interspersed with training. The Golden Rule is that no matter how small a thing it seems, ANY sort of aggression or irritation toward your kids is completeley unnacceptable, and is to be dealth with immediately. You must handle it in that moment. When you see it, tell the dog no, and remove it from the family presence. Boxers need to be with their humans, and this is the worst punishment they can get. Keep his mind and body working, and keep him on a routine, and he should "chill" out. Remember, you got him as an older dog, and his former owners, probably allowed the bad behavour to go on, and then got rid of him.

Kristine,

Has this dog lived with kids before? Have your kids lived with a dog before, especially a young one? I think alot of dogs are not happy when hugged around the neck, or when a toy is removed from them. Perhaps you should have the kids stay aloof from the dog until he settles in.

Thank you all for your suggestions. I did notice that crating him more was making him hyper. He's a bit lower energy than the "typical" boxer because he is fine in the house and not really "busy". He does like to play and gets a wrestle or two out of my husband but for the most part he gets nice long walks and he's out on a 30 foot lead to run a couple of times a week. The walks are daily. He is bonded to my husband. This is an annoyance to me since my husband has absolutely no interest in obedience training him so it has to be me and it WILL get done. The dog listens to me but seeks out my husband as his source of affection.

I will take the advice on getting the kids involved with his training. I taught him the down very easily and he did it for the kids the last time they were here. I will continue to reinforce good behaviors and reprimand the bad ones.

I don't know if he's ever been around kids. I don't know anything about his background but guessing he has been around kids because the young ones crying doesn't bother him. I agree that he is viewing the older boys as outsiders and that's why he's always watching what they are doing when they are here. Of course this was his first meet with them after he had only been here a short time so he could also have been feeling out his place. He acts very different with my toddler...moving out of his way and obeying him. He knows his place with him. I never leave the dog and kids unattended, not even for one second. I don't trust any dog with any kid but that's just me. My kids have been around dogs before. I just don't know if my dog has been around kids before. Getting him after he'd been tossed around, it's impossible to ever know what he did to get kicked out in the first place. I think he will be a great dog just needs some work. He's rough around the edges. It's obvious to me that he tests his boundries and has to be put in his place at times but backs down easily. I will continue working with him and the kids. Thanks again.