Boxer and trainability

[Shannerson]

I love boxers and would not mind having one someday. My sister has one but this boxer does not listen very well, but I know that is because she is untrained and is babied a lot and not expected to be obedient. But I am very impressed with this boxers friendliness and gentleness with young children. My question is for anyone, how trainable are boxers? I've heard they can be highly trainable, stubborn and independent at times. Would they be a good agility competetor or pet therapy animal? Can they go for walks and play in the snow in 20 degree weather or are they chilled quickly and dislike the cold immensely? Just wondering. We live in Minnesota where brrrr! gets cold, but I am not out a lot when it gets very frigid. Hard to burn off energy then too.
Thanks.

 

[bubbatd]

Wish I could help ! I had a boxer in my early 20s and expected he could be trained like a Golden , Wrong !! Hopefully some Boxer people will step in for you .

 

[RD]

I have a Boxer that lives here, he isn't mine. He's not the most intelligent of dogs (I have a Border Collie and a genius Papillon, so maybe I've been spoiled?) but he is definitely trainable and responds well to positive methods. It takes him a long time to learn commands and he sometimes prefers to do things his way. Force-based training would be useless on this dog - you can't force him to do anything. Not because he's testy and will respond with aggression, but because he just won't budge. His owners try to shove his butt down into a sit and they can almost do a handstand on his butt before he'll sit. I guess people would call him stubborn, I call him powerful. But if he can be convinced that something like sitting was his idea in the first place, he's quite obedient. Elway would be a terrible agility dog because he just isn't fast enough (physically or mentally) but he would be a fantastic therapy dog.

He isn't well bred and I don't know if all Boxers are like him as he's the only one I've spent a lot of time with. No dog is impossible to train to a high level of obedience if the owner is diligent enough - I know a lady who competes in obedience with her greyhounds. Getting a greyhound to sit is a huge feat, lol!

Elway is much more tolerant of the cold than the heat - short-nosed breeds tend to overheat easily. In the snow a Boxer would probably need a coat, just because they have very short, scant fur . . . I have a friend in Idaho with three rescue Boxers that enjoy the snow, the only one that has a hard time sometimes is her senior female. She's 14 and can't handle the cold for extended periods of time.

 

[otch1]

I've personally owned 3 Boxers and have trained many. One I bought for my husband, at that time, 2 weeks before my son was born. They grew up together. It's a wonderful breed, good family dog, but not for everyone. They require a lot of training and socialization. They do not do well in extreme cold. They are slow to mature. It is generally a short lived breed. Breeding/line is important, for temperament as well as health issues. (Prone to cysts, tumors, certain types of cancer) Good book to get "The Boxer", great pictures, nice bios about different lines and info about training and behavioral issues.

 

[Mordy]

I don't know about U.S. bred Boxers, but in Germany they are considered "utility dogs" ("gebrauchshunde", has nothing to do with the american UD title though, in meaning it corresponds more to the AKC "working group") true workers and compete in dog sports like Schutzhund etc. as much as what people consider the more "traditional" breeds for this kind of activity.

It's also a breed frequently used by the German police, border patrol and army.

They generally have really stable temperaments and a pretty high working drive. Wherever people claim they are "stubborn" it's really just the innate trait to work independently that was bred into them when the breed was developed, like you can also see in most terrier breeds.

So in short, they are very trainable and love to work.

 

[skyeboxer]

I've only ever had one boxer. She was generally easy to train mostly because she is playful and eager to please. Turn training time into a game and your more than halfway there. Thinking about it she does have a stubborn streak. She knows she's not allowed on the beds but will sneak on and then slink off again thinking Mamma doesn't know!

I don't think I'd expose a boxer to too much very cold weather though I agree that extremes of heat are t as bad. Not only does the thin coat not protect against cold but they can get sun burn (especially white boxers) and that can lead to skin cancer.

Skye is not a great jumper though she runs like the wind and turns on a dime. I'd not think she'd do great in agility but I know she'd make a great therapy dog.

As someone else mentioned Boxers do not have long lives. On the internet you'll find some say 12-14 yrs. Others say 8-10. Sadly I think the shorter span is more likely with Skye and will be very lucky if I get to keep her to 10 years.

 

[for_dogs_sake]

We rescued our first boxer 3 months ago and he was completely un-trained.
We have found that he is an incredibly intelligent dog but can be a bit stubborn at times and still finds housetraining a bit of a problem but he has learnt a lot in such a short space of time.

 

[DanL]

There is a young boxer in my ob class who is doing very well. The guy who has him works with him all the time, just like you have to do with any dog you want to be well trained.

 

[BlackPuppy]

There's an older gentleman at our dog club who has Boxers - about 5 of them from what I can see, and all ages. They are the best behaved dogs I've ever seen. He brings them to the Friday night agility practice and even the puppies know agility (at low bar heights). He also practices obedience with them while awaiting his turn on the equipment. One day, one of the crate doors wasn't latched properly and the dog inside didn't even attempt to leave the crate and wander around. I'm certain this gentleman is retired and probably spends a lot of time with his dogs, but they sure are great dogs.

 

[elegy]

i love boxers, but i am wary of owning them because of the health issues in the breed- lots and lots of heart disease and cancer. they are a high energy breed, lots of drive, tend to be very goofy and bouncy which i love. they can be dog-aggressive (often same-sex aggression).

 

[Chrissy&B]

They're like big kids that never grow up really . My cousin has one and she's the sweetest dog ever. The way she looks at me with those big, round eyes..... I simply can't resist her. I have to kiss her goofy face .

 

[Zoom]

There are handful of them that come to board/daycare fairly often. Most of them I love, some I cringe when I see them. The bad traits that I've noticed are: stubbornness, obsessiveness, very easy to overexcite and dashes of DA here and there. Also males can be VERY dominant...but there are two males that were in today and I just love those two guys to pieces! If I could clone the fawn one, I totally would. He's such an awesome dog. His parents have put a lot of work into him though.

 

[Southpaw]

I have a boxer and she is *wonderful*, I will never be without one. She needed some firm training when we first got her (she was 8 months old), we have a privacy fence that's about 6 feet tall and she would jump right over it if she wanted to. She destroyed our wooden blinds once when we left, and one day we came home to find her tied up in the neighbor's yard: she had jumped out the window, right through the screen.

But if it makes you feel better, she's the only boxer (and dog in general lol) I've known to be that extreme.

Definitely great with children, my mom does daycare so that's a must. But Molly will be laying on the floor, and my 10 month old nephew will crawl over to her and try to eat her paw lol, and she just lets him do it. When she gets really sick of it though, she just gets up and goes somewhere else.

She is very easy to train, she loooooooves verbal praise so catches on really quickly if you keep up with the "good girl!!!" lol. But I only have to show her things a few times before she gets it.

My sister's 2 year old boxer isn't very obedient, she's an incredibly sweet and gentle dog but she just doesn't listen...but I definitely know it's the way she's been trained. My brother's 6 month old boxer, though, has learned things pretty quickly and is very well behaved.

I live in MN too, and the cold weather has never bothered her much. She doesn't mind going out in the snow...it's the rain she hates LOL.

 

[frenchboxer]

They're like big kids that never grow up really . .

:lol-sign: I have to agree! I LOVE Boxers to pieces. I grew up with one and had one of my own and they were both absolute darlings. Don't know too much about the training. They can't be too difficult to train ~ somehow they both managed to be very well behaved dogs and in my book are the ideal family dog... GREAT with children!

 

[Muggie'sMum]

I am friends with a girl who runs the only boxer on the agility circuit in our area. Her girl is amazing.

I do love boxers. I get the feeling that they're not as naturally focused as a herding breed though!