Choosing your Boxer Dog

An easier and more pleasant journey with your chosen Boxer Dog starts with checking out the parent dogs for unbecoming traits like aggression, hyperactive and extreme shyness.

This is easier to do when you get your Boxer Dog from a reputable breeder or from a pet shop that get their animals only from known breeders. Exercise prudence if you are getting your Boxer puppy from pet stores, which often get their supply from breeders of unknown reputation.

These "puppy mills" as they are called are not known to put much emphasis on the quality and health of pups they are producing. Reputable breeders would adhere to the accepted standards for Boxer Dog in terms of uniformity in the breed, good health, temperament, size and color.

Reputable breeders would be able to show the pedigree and registration papers and/or pictures of the parent dogs that may reside somewhere else. Professional breeders are also there to produce dog show champions or prospects.

Even if you are not looking to raise a show champion Boxer Dog, known breeders can provide you with some "best buy" puppies because not all the puppies in a litter are show prospect/champion materials.

But the full litter would have had benefited from the same proven bloodlines, nutrition and medical care. So you can choose from among the good-looking brothers or sisters of potential champion for a bargain.

Your other source option is animal shelters that in the US alone receive up to 12 million homeless dogs and cats every year, and about 25% of them are purebred. Paying the adoption fee is a lot cheaper than the price you will pay to a breeder or pet store, and you will be saving a life.

The definition of good stock or purebred must include beauty, and in a Boxer good look means the coat is fawn and brindle, with the white markings or "flash" covering not more than one-third of the entire coat.

Sometimes the distribution of the "flash" alone may make the difference between a show champion and just a pet Boxer.  The all-white Boxer or "check" is prone to blindness and deafness, and the American Boxer Club members are not to register, sell or use the "whites" for breeding.

When it comes to choosing male or female Boxers, there are not much clear-cut differences in their personalities.

At times, the male is calmer, more tolerant of other dogs, willing to hold still for those hugs than the female. But at other times, the female can be so. One owner said the female Boxer Dog is hyper and more aggressive especially toward other females, and that the aggression has increased as the female gets older.

Of Leash, Harness and Crate

This is worth repeating. Your Boxer should not be allowed to run loose outdoors. He has short attention span and runs faster than you.

Though extremely tolerant of children by nature, a Boxer's effusive greeting could scare a small child. He could run into not so pleasant encounters with other dogs from the neighborhood or worse mishaps like road accident and poisoned stuff.

So exercise or play with your Boxer in a fenced area or on a leash.

If yours like to pull or stray while going on walks, opt for a body harness. The chain-harness combo looks good as well as trains the Boxer to walk without pulling or straying.

A harness is also the answer to the Boxer slipping out of the collar. And a properly protected screen door is the answer to one that is prone to unexpected house exit.

At home, a crate for your Boxer puppy can be his safe heaven, a place where he retreats to for rest.

It is not a prison. Place it in a warm corner, away from the draft, cold or summer heat, as Boxers are sensitive to extremes in temperature. Leave the crate door open and your puppy will usually enter when he wants to rest.

The crate is particularly useful when you are going out, leaving him alone for a while. Then you don't have to worry so much about your Boxer chewing up the furniture or electrical cords in the house. The crate is also an excellent housetraining aid, as the puppy doesn't like to soil his crate.