I had to share... We let our boxador stay loose in the house while we went out for an hour yesterday-and she behaved!!!!! I'm thrilled. Our dog is about a year and a half old. She has the calmest temperment out of any dog I've ever heard of. She is very well trained by DH and I but she's a companion and likes to go everywhere with us. Oh and she's spoiled too!
When she was around 6 months, we had full faith in her, staying by herself uncrated (though she loves her crate). We went to church one morning and decided to give her a try on her own. She has company, our cat, Mortimer Moose. We were gone right at an hour (short service!) and pulled up the driveway to two little faces in the window. Cute, right? Only, this meant that they were on the couch which is unacceptable and they know it! When I entered the house, I turned right around and told DH to go for a drive and not to come back for a while! He would have lost it...Our puppy had destroyed two expensive tv remotes to dish network and to our new flatscreen tv., 2 wedding picture CDs, a text book, a computer cord, her toy box and...the top corner of our other brand new marriage purchase-the lovely sectional which she was sitting on when we got home. Since then, we've only given her run of the sunroom and she's done well there. I'm thrilled that she did well with her responsibility yesterday! Small steps, right?! I love her!
Re: Dog Behavior:What a good girl!
i've never heard the term Boxador. can we see a pic?
it's so awesome not having to crate them during the day. we started leaving our boxer out around 1.5 - 2 years old. she sleeps on our bed for the majority of the day.
That is so exciting that she is able to handle more responsibility. I remember the first time we left Rudy and there was no destruction when we got home. It is such a great feeling, like your little baby is growing up.
One trick we used when leaving the dog is to not say goodbye or make a big deal about leaving. That way they may not realize what a big deal it is that they are alone in the house. Also, they don't know if you left to get the mail or left for the day.
Our Casey (boxer) and Shadow (yorkie) stay out when we aren't home but Izziebella (new boxer) cannot! The other day we came home to my jewelry box all over the bedroom, half of the dog bed basket chewed and plenty of other foolishness! She will definitely have to earn her freedom!
Our Lab has been pretty good about being left 'loose', however right after we moved into our new house, she took to chewing the blinds in the front windows of the house. She knawed on a few blinds which sufficiently PO'ed DH and resulted in some disciplinary action for the poor dog. One day I came home to find she had completely ripped the blind off the back door and torn it to shreds! (in her defense, she was sick that day and I think in her doggie brain she could get outside to go to the bathroom if only that pesky blind was out of her way)
Thankfully DH was out of town that week, so I replaced the blind and threw away the old one and he is none the wiser! ;-)