Hi,
I have a 15 month old boxer who is very active as typical of the breed! When
with myself and my partner he is good as gold, behaves brilliantly...
however as soon as we have a visitor he will run around like a lunatic and
start tugging the bottom of their trousers. I have tried firmly telling him
no, I have tried getting him to sit and rewarding him, I've tried putting
him on his lead, putting him in a different room, ignoring him, giving him
loads of attention - everything! He gets plenty of excercise too. Is there
something else I can try that I haven't?

Thanks,
Joe

"joe" wrote in message
...
Hi,
I have a 15 month old boxer who is very active as typical of the breed!
When
with myself and my partner he is good as gold, behaves brilliantly...
however as soon as we have a visitor he will run around like a lunatic and
start tugging the bottom of their trousers. I have tried firmly telling
him
no, I have tried getting him to sit and rewarding him, I've tried putting
him on his lead, putting him in a different room, ignoring him, giving him
loads of attention - everything! He gets plenty of excercise too. Is there
something else I can try that I haven't?

Until you get a reliable 'stay' where you can give him a command and tell
him to stay put, basically just ignore, ignore, ignore. I find it nicer on
the visitor to put the dog in a timeout or another room so as not to harrass
the person while trying to get the dog to calm down.

Boxers live solely for attention. Even if you yell at him or ignore him at
first but the visitor so much as swipes their hand at him, he's being
rewarded. I have a hard time ignoring (without losing my patience and
snapping OFF!) a 50+ lb Boxer jumping, boxing or mouthing me and I *love*
the breed.

Visitors often don't have the patience to wait out the dog & completely
ignore it or they think its mean to do so or they just don't want their
clothes slobbered on. That's why I think its just easier to put the dog
away. That solution isn't teaching the dog much but some Boxers,
particularly at this age & with their mouthy tendancies, are just deaf &
dumb when it comes to not going bananas over visitors.

Work on teaching a reliable 'stay' command. Use treats for motivation and
take baby steps when teaching. Don't stop teaching once you start either.
Teach stay with a hand out, palm towards the dog's face, and a stern voice.
I've found it easier with Boxers to back away a step at a time, increasing
the distance as the dog begins to learn the command. Use a release word
like come (if your dog already knows that one) then praise & treat. If he
breaks the 'stay' then start over.

After you get this down at home, start doing it outside, in parks or places
where there will be some distractions. Its a rare Boxer pet who isn't
perfect at home but disobedient around others. The desire for attention from
someone new tends to outweigh the desire to please the owner.

--
Tara

Thanks Tee,
I'll work on the commands! I know what your saying about craving the
attention, he just goes wild when we have visitors - he's not being vicious
he just goes off on one, and its hard to explain to people that he's not
being nasty he's just dying for the attention!! Anyway thanks for the
advice. By the way, providing I keep training him, is this something that
will generally calm as he gets older?

Thanks,
Joe
"Tee" wrote in message
...
"joe" wrote in message
...
Hi,
I have a 15 month old boxer who is very active as typical of the breed!
When
with myself and my partner he is good as gold, behaves brilliantly...
however as soon as we have a visitor he will run around like a lunatic
and
start tugging the bottom of their trousers. I have tried firmly telling
him
no, I have tried getting him to sit and rewarding him, I've tried
putting
him on his lead, putting him in a different room, ignoring him, giving
him
loads of attention - everything! He gets plenty of excercise too. Is
there
something else I can try that I haven't?

Until you get a reliable 'stay' where you can give him a command and tell
him to stay put, basically just ignore, ignore, ignore. I find it nicer
on
the visitor to put the dog in a timeout or another room so as not to
harrass
the person while trying to get the dog to calm down.

Boxers live solely for attention. Even if you yell at him or ignore him
at
first but the visitor so much as swipes their hand at him, he's being
rewarded. I have a hard time ignoring (without losing my patience and
snapping OFF!) a 50+ lb Boxer jumping, boxing or mouthing me and I *love*
the breed.

Visitors often don't have the patience to wait out the dog & completely
ignore it or they think its mean to do so or they just don't want their
clothes slobbered on. That's why I think its just easier to put the dog
away. That solution isn't teaching the dog much but some Boxers,
particularly at this age & with their mouthy tendancies, are just deaf &
dumb when it comes to not going bananas over visitors.

Work on teaching a reliable 'stay' command. Use treats for motivation and
take baby steps when teaching. Don't stop teaching once you start either.
Teach stay with a hand out, palm towards the dog's face, and a stern
voice.
I've found it easier with Boxers to back away a step at a time, increasing
the distance as the dog begins to learn the command. Use a release word
like come (if your dog already knows that one) then praise & treat. If he
breaks the 'stay' then start over.

After you get this down at home, start doing it outside, in parks or
places
where there will be some distractions. Its a rare Boxer pet who isn't
perfect at home but disobedient around others. The desire for attention
from
someone new tends to outweigh the desire to please the owner.

--
Tara

"joe" wrote in message
...
Thanks Tee,
I'll work on the commands! I know what your saying about craving the
attention, he just goes wild when we have visitors - he's not being
vicious
he just goes off on one, and its hard to explain to people that he's not
being nasty he's just dying for the attention!! Anyway thanks for the
advice. By the way, providing I keep training him, is this something that
will generally calm as he gets older?

Yes, thankfully it does go away. With males though you won't see a
noticable decline until about 2.5 years of age.

One of my clients/friends has a Boxer I adopted to her a little over a year
ago. he's about 20 months old now. He's an absolute angel at my house and
obeys me 100%. He doesn't even get spastic when people come over (I petsit
him often). Now at his house its a completely different story. He
constantly jumps at me, tries to grab my hands, grabs my
pants/purse/jacket/sweater...you name it and he wants it in his mouth. The
more I ignore him the more persistent he becomes. When I command him to
'off' or 'down' two commands he obeys perfectly at my house, he acts like
he's never heard the words before.

His owner made the mistake of verbally scolding and then taking him by the
collar to put him in a crate timeout during the age of about 9-18 months.
It wasn't the positive attention he was looking for but it was attention
nonetheless. It created a monster. Its really amazing how the same dog
will act like a maniac towards me at her house but like a perfectly trained,
calm dog at my house. I was surprised to find that its not always the
person the dog takes commands from but the environment the person is in that
can make the decision.

--
Tara