Greetings from me and George..

Jaffster · 02-27-2011, 05:22 AM

Hi everyone.

We got George on Friday - he's a 7 week old Boxer. We had arranged to go and get him next week when he was 8 weeks but the breeder rang and told us that the rest of the litter had gone and he was the only one left

We're trying to do all the right things. I've done extensive reading and in principle I understand all that's happening, however when it comes to the practical side of things me and my fiance are struggling!

We are crate training him - he really likes falling asleep with his chin on our feet after a hard session of play. I presume this is mimicking his littermates as that's how they all lie together? We put him into the crate each time he does this and he usually sleeps for around an hour. We leave the door open so he doesn't feel like he's being punished or anything ( we don't want him thinking of the crate as a bad thing ).

We have 2 problems though.

1) He likes to poop everywhere. His crate is near the back door and as he isn't vaccinated fully yet we're reluctant to let him outside so now we are using puppy pads to train him. For 3 days now we have been in the house and EVERYTIME he squats we move him to the puppy pad. Sometimes he'll go on the pad and we'll treat him and make a fuss once he's finished. Othertimes he'll not go, wait until he's in the front room again then try to go again.

He hasn't once actually gone to the pad to do his business without us moving him. Is this normal? I know 3 days isn't alot compared to the grand scale of things but we were hoping he might have started to get the idea by now

2) Night time. We PLAY PLAY PLAY until he is very tired and then pop him in his crate before we shoot off to bed. On Thursday/Friday night we stayed on the sofa in the living room which is vivsible from the crate. He cried 4/5 times and each time we'd go, put our hand in until he was asleep and then get back on the couch.

Last night I went to the bedroom. He howled for over an hour. I eventually gave in and went to him, got him to sleep then went back to bed. I got about an hours rest before he started again.

Any advice would be well received.

Cheers

Marylou Mader · 02-27-2011, 05:44 AM

Everything happening is normal here are a couple of points:

#1 DO NOT take him out of the crate until he is quiet. otherwise he will always cry to get out.

#2 don't let him out of the crate unless you can keep BOTH eyes on him, that means, if you are watching TV or doing dishes, or cooking, etc. he must be in his crate.

#3 watch his behaviors for getting ready to poop, like sniffing, and circling, and moving around in a faster pace than normal. At that time, take him to his pee pee pad or outside.

#4 don't allow him too much room to explore, or he will have an opportunity to hid and poop rather than learn to use the pads or go to the door to go outside.

you may want to keep his leash on him while he is out of the crate, and either tie it to yourself, or hold onto it, this keep him attached to you, so you can monitor his actviites.

The howling in the crate only lasts a couple of days, making a schedule for him is very important, do not allow him to eat at random, make sure you are feeding him structured meals at least 4 per day, at prescribed times, that way, he will have a more regular system for potty times.

Hope this helps a little, please enjoy him, they don't stay little for very long...

Jaffster · 02-27-2011, 05:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marylou Mader

Everything happening is normal here are a couple of points:

#1 DO NOT take him out of the crate until he is quiet. otherwise he will always cry to get out.

#2 don't let him out of the crate unless you can keep BOTH eyes on him, that means, if you are watching TV or doing dishes, or cooking, etc. he must be in his crate.

#3 watch his behaviors for getting ready to poop, like sniffing, and circling, and moving around in a faster pace than normal. At that time, take him to his pee pee pad or outside.

#4 don't allow him too much room to explore, or he will have an opportunity to hid and poop rather than learn to use the pads or go to the door to go outside.

you may want to keep his leash on him while he is out of the crate, and either tie it to yourself, or hold onto it, this keep him attached to you, so you can monitor his actviites.

The howling in the crate only lasts a couple of days, making a schedule for him is very important, do not allow him to eat at random, make sure you are feeding him structured meals at least 4 per day, at prescribed times, that way, he will have a more regular system for potty times.

Hope this helps a little, please enjoy him, they don't stay little for very long...

It does help and it's good to know that it's all completely normal and not us that's having some bad effect on him

We were advised by the vet to feed him 3 times a day, once of those meals being supper (before bed). I think we'll have to push this meal forwards a few hours

Ron · 02-27-2011, 07:52 AM

welcome to the forum!

I agree with what Marylou said.

one thing we did which seemed to calm him at night was to have the crate next to our bed. When he started to get upset we were able to put a hand in which calmed him down.

Doreen · 02-27-2011, 10:59 AM

awwww.... good luck with your new baby!

Spyglass Sally · 02-27-2011, 02:50 PM

Welcome to the forum.

We've only had one boxer, but our experience is they house train quite quickly so hopefully that won't be an issue for too long. Not sure what I think of the pads. I've heard it trains them to go inside and you're better to just go outside with them from the get go. But whatever works for you.

Buddy didn't like being in his crate at night, which was not in our room. We moved a bed (not his crate, because we wanted it where it was) in our room and then leashed him so he couldn't wander around when we were sleeping. That worked out great. He just wanted to be by us.

Doreen · 02-27-2011, 03:33 PM

With my past boxer, Rufus, we had to bring the crate into our bedroom. We had it in the kitchen but we didn't sleep for 2 weeks with his howling! Once he brought the crate in our bedroom we finally got sleep! He stayed in the crate nicely but just wanted to be near us

Erin251 · 02-27-2011, 09:39 PM

marylou has it all right!
we had Bos crate in our room next to the bed the first couple weeks, that way all i had to do is roll over and stick my fingers in it and he would calm down immeadiatly and i could fall back asleep, that helped alot. after a couple weeks when he grew out of that crate we got him a huge on and moved it downstairs and put a blanket over it so its nice and dark and is less likely to notice you if you have to go to the bathroom. and he has done wonderfull with this, i thnk having the crate up there with us made him more comfortable so when we moved him he already liked his crate enough to not care where it was... good luck and welcome

Jaffster · 02-28-2011, 10:42 AM

Marylou is a saint. He played for over 2 hours last night to the point were his eyes were closing while he was chasing me around. He went to bed at 10PM and only woke up this morning at 6AM. I've had my first nights undistrurbed sleep

I have been reading today about the puppy pads. His crate is next to the back door so going outside to do his business would not be a problem, the only issue I have is that he only had his 1st vaccination on Friday and doesn't have his second one until towards the end of next month. Will he be ok in the garden? The last thing i want is him catching some kind of disease - I'd never forgive myself and I don't think my fiance would forgive me either!

Marylou Mader · 02-28-2011, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaffster

Marylou is a saint. He played for over 2 hours last night to the point were his eyes were closing while he was chasing me around. He went to bed at 10PM and only woke up this morning at 6AM. I've had my first nights undistrurbed sleep

I have been reading today about the puppy pads. His crate is next to the back door so going outside to do his business would not be a problem, the only issue I have is that he only had his 1st vaccination on Friday and doesn't have his second one until towards the end of next month. Will he be ok in the garden? The last thing i want is him catching some kind of disease - I'd never forgive myself and I don't think my fiance would forgive me either!

Chances of him getting sick just in your yard are pretty slim, if you want to use the pads, they are fine, just have to keep moving them outside for the puppy to get the idea, so for instance, if you put the pads near the door, he will go to the door and this will become a signal to go out :0)