Through socialization a boxer puppy learns to recognise and interact with other dogs, with people of different ages, races and genders, and with other animals that she is likely to come into contact with along her life, such as cats and horses. Through socialization the young dog will learn how to communicate with and interpret the other animals’ intentions, thus avoiding unnecessary hostilities. He will also learn to cope with stress and will certainly suffer less as an adult in stressful situations. Socialization also teaches a puppy to get used to different places, sights and sounds and makes him become confident in new situations.

The most sensitive socialization period in your boxer puppy’s life begins at around 3 weeks of age and begins to reduce by 12 weeks. It is important to remember that many young dogs may need continual social interaction to maintain their socialization and failure to do so will mean that they regress or become fearful again. The 6-8 month period is another sensitive time for socialization and owners and trainers can use this window to further habituate and socialize their puppy to different surroundings, people and animals.

How should you undertake this? Introduction to new stimuli and other people and pets should be done in a systematic and controlled way. These experiences will shape the behaviour of your boxer for the rest of his life, so they should be fun and pleasurable. They may well also be challenging, but if done in the right way, the boxer puppy will learn that there is no threat and that she is safe to explore and meet new friends and situations without being fearful.

It is very important to introduce your boxer puppy to new people, places, and situations only when you can completely control the experience. A frightening experience will be detrimental so avoid unfriendly dogs and adults and children who do not understand how to be kind and gentle with animals. Always be ready to intervene if your puppy is scared, threatened or being bullied by another dog.

Evaluating your lifestyle and environment is also very important when socializing your boxer puppy. For instance, if you live in the country, take your puppy to town and gradually and carefully let her become used to crowds of people, noise and traffic. On the other hand if you live in a town, take your puppy to the countryside so she can see and smell farm animals and become accustomed to them too. Make sure your boxer meets some cats who are dog-friendly. Don’t let her chase them as this will be the beginning of a life-long habit very difficult to change at a later stage. If your household has no children, introduce your puppy boxer to some children who can regularly play gently with her. Supervise them to ensure the children are gentle and that your boxer is responding well and not becoming nervous or aggressive.

You can also socialize your puppy boxer by carrying her into different situations in your car, so that she can see different things in a safe environment and get used to trips in the car at the same time. Treats and praise should be used to reinforce good behaviour. If she becomes fearful do not comfort her as this can be interpreted as praise for the wrong behaviour. Simply try to change the situation until she feels safe and secure again.

At this age all interaction with your puppy should involve rewards for desirable behaviour which will increase the likelihood the dog will repeat this behaviour. It will also help to prevent the development of undesirable behaviour.

Enrolling your boxer puppy in socialization and training classes is another helpful step. This provides a great opportunity for puppies to socialize with other dogs while they learn obedience training in a playful environment.

Appropriate socialization will teach your boxer puppy how to interact well with dogs and other species and ensure he will have few, if any behavioural problems later in life.

Biting needs to be addressed while they are young because dog bites can lead to all sorts of problems including legal action. It may seem fun and funny to have a puppy biting but a full-grown boxer can do a lot of damage, particularly to children if they are in the habit of biting. Boxers have immense strength in their jaws and even a playful nip can do permanent damage to a child.

Generally, boxer puppies are taught to control their biting from their mothers but in most cases we get puppies as pets that have been taken from their mothers at a very young age and it is up to us to teach them as puppies not to bite.

By letting your boxer socialize with other dogs from a young age they will quickly learn from their elders, provided they have been taught well, that the desire to bite needs to be curbed to avoid retaliation and an ensuing fight.

The sooner the puppy is taught not to bite by the owner or by interaction with other dogs, the less aggressive they will become as they grow older and the more pleasant they will be to live with.

Taking a puppy to a dog training school will allow it to interact with other dogs where it will quickly be corrected for any misbehavior. Boxer puppies should generally learn to interact with other dogs within the first three months of their life.
The longer this is left the more difficult it becomes for your dog to socialize correctly and they can become dangerous later in life.
As with children, the sooner your boxer puppy can learn correct behavior patterns the better they will be in the long term.

It is also wise to get the puppy to behave correctly in the presence of other animals including cats and any other pets that they might come in contact with over their life.

There are many items that are available from the pet stores and vets that can give your puppy suitable satisfaction to chew and bite upon. This will allow your boxer puppy to learn what is right and what is not right to bite.

Amazing, isn’t it? Well, you can do the same with your boxer. All you need to do is apply the  appropriate training techniques and be patient and consistent.

To keep the training sessions effective they shouldn’t be too long. Your boxer may become bored by repetition of the same exercises and bored students don’t learn very well. You must be alert to notice when his attention starts wandering. (and boxers are specially inclined to distractions and to look for something more appealing…)

Shorten your training session if necessary. A shorter training lesson repeated two or three times along the day will probably be more effective than a single looong session each day.

If your dog is struggling to learn, try to change your training routine. Maybe the location is too distracting. Maybe the time of day is too close (or far from) feeding time. Maybe you need to break down the training exercises into smaller, simpler steps. Remember that each boxer is unique and you must be flexible and willing to do whatever you can to help him succeed. You will feel rewarded for your efforts when you show around your superbly trained boxer dog.

Don’t panic. Training boxer dog really is easier than you think and fun too, specially if you know what you are doing and you use the correct methods. You certainly have seen other people walking with their dogs at the park or at the beach without a lead and wondered just how they were able to achieve that. You have visited your friends and were amazed at their obedient and well behaved boxer… There is no particular reason for you to be envious: these dogs aren’t any smarter than yours, the only difference is that these people have learned the right way to train them.

Unfortunately, years ago when we got our first Boxer we made this mistake: we didn’t go after the information that would have guided us through all this training affair. We, my wife and I, were too young at the time and like most youngsters we though we knew how to take care of everything. Yes, we did pay attention to him, but the wrong kind of attention. The kind of attention that further encouraged some of his bad manners like biting and jumping up on people.

The most obvious consequence was a somehow troublesome relationship with our first boxer. He would follow some obedience commands but only when he felt like, so barking, chewing, biting became part of our daily life. Although friendly to our kids, he became very aggressive towards strangers and we really didn’t feel conmfortable when we had visitors to our home.

Despite all that, we enjoyed having him in our family and deeply regretted the accident that took his life when he was just three years old.

But we learned the lesson and I’ll pass it on to you today: Training your boxer dog the right way is the most important thing you will do for him and for yourself in order to build a lasting and stable relationship together.