KingGheedora
Diamond Member
My camera thread
I came home to my mom's house to visit for a couple weeks, and to my surprise, my mom got a boxer, she's still a puppy at 9 months old. She's really friendly, energetic and playful. She was sent to some kind of training school where they taught her to sit, lie down, and stay (not sure what else they taught, my mom isn't the type to remember that kind of thing). Apparently they also taught her not to bark, she never barks.
I have a lot of questions, as no one in my family has owned a dog before.
House Training:
The dog has gone #2 in the house twice since I've been here. I think she holds it in as long as possible, not sure though, because most of the time she whines and tries to get you to go to the back door when she needs to go. Sometimes I can't tell though, and it seems like she just wants to play so I ignore her. Is there a way to tell the difference between wanting to play and wanting to pee or shiat? A doggie door is probably not an option, my mom will not think that's secure. Also if she does have accidents in the house, what is the proper way to react to it in order to prevent it from happening again? When she peed on the floor yesterday i grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and brought her face close to the puddle and reprimanded her in an authoritative voice. I also did the same the first time she shat in the house. She seemed scared and like she knew she was in trouble.
Obedience:
This dog can sit and lie down, and I even taught her to shake my hand. So I know she understands the commands and can learn pretty quickly. But she seems to have an obedience problem. When she's outside she's hard to control. If there's a car, or another dog or some kind of distraction like that, she doesn't pay attention to me at all. Is there a way to get her to listen to me no matter what the situation? I don't want to be a nazi about it, but I need to know that in case there is danger and I need to give a command that she will obey.
One example is I was painting a fence in our front yard yesterday, and I thought she would be okay to hang out with me off the leash. A car came by and she started chasing it. The car was going 5 mph because she was running around the car as it drove down the street. She wouldn't listen to me. I tried a nice voice, an enticing voice, then tried using a commanding tone, nothing could work. The driver had to stop the car so I could catch up and grab the dob by her collar.
She does the same thing if other dogs are close by it's hard to get her to listen to me, even if she's on the leash, she doesn't really listen. Is this something that will get better with age? Or is this behavior that can be modified with training? If so how do we do it?
Food:
We feed her dry kibble. She hardly eats. My mom used to mix in rice and tuna, or canned (wet) cat food, or other food that she'd cook for herself into the kibble, and probably just straight up give her food that she cooked for herself without the kibble. Ever sicne i've been here I haven't seen her eat when we put kibble in her bowl. When my mom or I eat the dog will sit at the table sniffing and whinning, licking her chops. It's really cute but at the same time I don't want her to expect to eat the food we eat. Is this reasonable? I tried tasting the kibble and it's horrible, I can see why she would not want to eat it after trying human food so I can't blame her. But is the kibble healthier? My mom feeds her at 7am and 7pm. Is this enough? Since I've been here she hasn't eaten when the bowl is filled. Is that normal? She'll let the bowl sit there and throughout the day she'll eat it. I think when she finally gets hungry enough to accept the kibble is when she decides to eat. The only time I've fed her human food (either salami slices, and beef jerky) has been as a reward for performing commands.
Baths:
How often should she have them? She has this dog bed which is just some kind of miniature mattress. The thing smells like arse. She started smelling like "dog" the day after coming back from the groomers, I think it's from sleeping on that bed. Is this normal? What do you guys use for your dogs? Any way to clean the dog bed? Are there doggie sheets we could put on it? I got some dog shampoo and a grooming mitt but haven't used them because my mom claims she went to the groomers right before I came here (2 weeks ago). But it's hard to believe she started stinking so quickly.
What a great dog. She's so cute, looks just like Scooby Doo.
I came home to my mom's house to visit for a couple weeks, and to my surprise, my mom got a boxer, she's still a puppy at 9 months old. She's really friendly, energetic and playful. She was sent to some kind of training school where they taught her to sit, lie down, and stay (not sure what else they taught, my mom isn't the type to remember that kind of thing). Apparently they also taught her not to bark, she never barks.
I have a lot of questions, as no one in my family has owned a dog before.
House Training:
The dog has gone #2 in the house twice since I've been here. I think she holds it in as long as possible, not sure though, because most of the time she whines and tries to get you to go to the back door when she needs to go. Sometimes I can't tell though, and it seems like she just wants to play so I ignore her. Is there a way to tell the difference between wanting to play and wanting to pee or shiat? A doggie door is probably not an option, my mom will not think that's secure. Also if she does have accidents in the house, what is the proper way to react to it in order to prevent it from happening again? When she peed on the floor yesterday i grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and brought her face close to the puddle and reprimanded her in an authoritative voice. I also did the same the first time she shat in the house. She seemed scared and like she knew she was in trouble.
Obedience:
This dog can sit and lie down, and I even taught her to shake my hand. So I know she understands the commands and can learn pretty quickly. But she seems to have an obedience problem. When she's outside she's hard to control. If there's a car, or another dog or some kind of distraction like that, she doesn't pay attention to me at all. Is there a way to get her to listen to me no matter what the situation? I don't want to be a nazi about it, but I need to know that in case there is danger and I need to give a command that she will obey.
One example is I was painting a fence in our front yard yesterday, and I thought she would be okay to hang out with me off the leash. A car came by and she started chasing it. The car was going 5 mph because she was running around the car as it drove down the street. She wouldn't listen to me. I tried a nice voice, an enticing voice, then tried using a commanding tone, nothing could work. The driver had to stop the car so I could catch up and grab the dob by her collar.
She does the same thing if other dogs are close by it's hard to get her to listen to me, even if she's on the leash, she doesn't really listen. Is this something that will get better with age? Or is this behavior that can be modified with training? If so how do we do it?
Food:
We feed her dry kibble. She hardly eats. My mom used to mix in rice and tuna, or canned (wet) cat food, or other food that she'd cook for herself into the kibble, and probably just straight up give her food that she cooked for herself without the kibble. Ever sicne i've been here I haven't seen her eat when we put kibble in her bowl. When my mom or I eat the dog will sit at the table sniffing and whinning, licking her chops. It's really cute but at the same time I don't want her to expect to eat the food we eat. Is this reasonable? I tried tasting the kibble and it's horrible, I can see why she would not want to eat it after trying human food so I can't blame her. But is the kibble healthier? My mom feeds her at 7am and 7pm. Is this enough? Since I've been here she hasn't eaten when the bowl is filled. Is that normal? She'll let the bowl sit there and throughout the day she'll eat it. I think when she finally gets hungry enough to accept the kibble is when she decides to eat. The only time I've fed her human food (either salami slices, and beef jerky) has been as a reward for performing commands.
Baths:
How often should she have them? She has this dog bed which is just some kind of miniature mattress. The thing smells like arse. She started smelling like "dog" the day after coming back from the groomers, I think it's from sleeping on that bed. Is this normal? What do you guys use for your dogs? Any way to clean the dog bed? Are there doggie sheets we could put on it? I got some dog shampoo and a grooming mitt but haven't used them because my mom claims she went to the groomers right before I came here (2 weeks ago). But it's hard to believe she started stinking so quickly.
What a great dog. She's so cute, looks just like Scooby Doo.
