Boxers are smart and family-oriented dogs. They are known as energetic canines that like to play a lot but due to various reasons, they can develop destructive behavior patterns.
In that case, Boxers can be a real nightmare, chewing your furniture, digging holes in the wall, destroying your belongings, barking excessively, eating non-food stuff.
Since they are full of energy, in order to prevent chewing, digging and other forms of destructive behavior, provide a lot of daily physical activity, training, play, and mental stimulation to Boxers. Avoid leaving Boxer dog alone for too long as separation anxiety and boredom are major triggers for destructive behavior.
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Better Understanding Of Destructive Behavior in Boxers Helps You Stop It
There are different destructive behavior patterns in Boxers. It’s important to learn them so you can track and stop them on time
Many owners think that some behaviors are normal for dogs but they are not, those dogs have some kind of behavioral disorder that needs to be treated.
Dogs are never destructive because they are evil and tend to get even. Destructive behavior in Boxers has nothing to do with their character but with some predictable triggers like stress, boredom, lack of activity, teething etc
Primary destructive behavior :
- Chewing on small things in the house
- Digging holes in the yard or on the wall
- Eating house plants
- Chewing on furniture
Secondary destructive behavior :
- The Boxer is destroying things to get your attention
- He does that when you are around, so you can see his action
Separation – anxiety related destruction :
- Chewing on furniture, carpets, and other things
- Going to the toilet in the house although is house trained
- Chewing your personal belongings ( shoes, purse, clothes…)
- Excessive barking or howling
- All these actions are happening when you are not there
Aggression and dominance related destruction:
- Growling or biting response to touching the dog’s food while he is eating, waking him up or disturbing while he is resting, moving the dog from the furniture, lifting the dog, putting on or taking off the collar…
- Destroying the doors or windows
Obsessive-compulsive related destruction:
- Excessive licking and chewing on furniture, carpets, and other things
- Excessive licking on his own paws and feet
- Eating non-food items ( PICA disorder)
- Fabric sucking
How To Stop Destructive Behavior in Boxer Dogs?
The main goal we have here is to stop destructive behavior in your Boxer and get a loving and obedient dog that interacts with you in a calmer and respectful manner.
Train Your Boxer
Only trained dog is a well-behaved dog. And not only that. If you work with your dog, teaching him a lot of things, you spend some time with him, as a result, you get not only trained but also a happy dog. A dog that is happy, socialized, and trained will hardly ever display any destructive behavior.
Start with training basic commands once your Boxer puppy is 3 weeks old. Get him used to grooming ( that is kind of training as well !), house trained your dog when he is about 6 months old, and start for advance commands and obedience training when he is about 1 year old.
Boxers are very protective of their owners, so socialization is a must. Socialize your dog as early as you can. Professional training in the group is also a good idea, as there will meet other dogs which is a great thing for socialization. If Boxer is not socialized, if he doesn’t know how to behave with humans and other dogs he can easily slip into destructive behavior.
Respect training is another important thing for your Boxer. He must understand that you are an ”alpha” dog. If he sees himself above you in rank, this could lead to serious dominance-related destructive behavior.
Remember that if your boxer is not trained properly in the first two years, if he is poorly managed, he may develop some bad behavior habits that will continue throughout his whole life. It’s not that easy to correct them once the dog is a fully grown, adult.
Don’t forget that your Boxer needs regular physical activity apart from training. He needs at least 1 hour of daily exercise and plays divided into two walks ( morning and late afternoon). You can play fetch, Frisbee, balls, run or have similar cardio activity.
Keep Your Boxer’s Mind Occupied
Boxers are very intelligent dogs. Tiring your dog’s body is OK but it’s not enough. If you don’t stimulate his brain by giving him some tasks to do and problems to solve, soon he becomes bored and you guess what happens then? If you don’t give him anything to do, he will find some way to entertain himself, but I am sure you won’t like his idea of amusement.
Provide some interesting toys, that can be food release toys like KONG, Buster Cube, or treat puzzles, but you can also play hide&seek game, during which you can hide some treat in your house or your can hide and let your dog find you.
It’s a good idea to take his food and put it at several different places in your yard, letting your dog ”hunt” his food. It’s super important that the games you play stimulate his sense of smell. That’s the best way to stimulate his brain and keep him busy.
Don’t leave your Boxer alone for too long every day. Pups that are left alone continuously may develop separation anxiety and become very destructive. This kind of behavior might be seeking attention behavior but also the behavior developed of boredom. In any case, make sure you spend a great deal of quality time with your dog, play with him, pet him… he will be a better dog!
Provide Chew Toys
Dogs like to chew. This has nothing to do with age nor character, dogs of all breeds and ages like to chew. It’s true that puppies tend to chew on anything they run into and that has something to do with the teething process and pain related to that. But this is also the way they explore the world.
If you have Boxer that chews on everything he finds, how to stop chewing – is not the right question you need to know the answer for. You should teach your dog which things he can & cannot chew on.
If you don’t want him to chew on your belonging like shoes or a purse, never give him an old purse or shoes to play with, he cannot see a difference between old and new.
Provide a variety of chew toys including more natural alternatives like marrow bones and your Boxer won’t have any necessity to destroy your furniture or leather jacket.
Even if you have a lot of chew toys never give them all at once. If your Boxer sees all these things on the floor, he might think that anything he finds on the floor is good for chewing, which is not correct, isn’t it?
Always keep so toys hidden so you can rotate them every 2-3 weeks or example. If Boxer doesn’t see some toy for 15 days, it will be like totally new and interesting thing for him.
Remember to check all toys and throw away any toy that is damaged in any way.
More Advises on How To Stop Boxer’s Destructive Behavior
Make sure your Boxer has a crate, his own safe space. Of course, it’s expected that your Boxer was crate trained when he was a puppy. The crate is a great place to leave the dog while you are not in the house.
He won’t be able to wander around and destroy /chew on things but you shouldn’t leave him in the crate for more than a couple of hours ( 4-6 hours ).
But if your dog shows some serious signs of stress when in a crate such as heavy panting, excessive salivation, constant barking, and howling then you should think of another solution.
It’s always better to limit a dog to one room and not let him explore the whole house while you are not there. You can either leave him in one room or even limit that room with a baby gate or exercise pen.
Make sure your house is Boxer-proofed. That means that you should remove all house plants that could be dangerous for your pet.
Remove electrical cables and cords from the ground as your dog may try to chew on them. Keep power stirps, chargers, adapters in the cable management box.
Keep all chemicals and poisons: cleaning supplies, personal hygiene items, medicine, ointments, laundry detergents, bleach, car-care products ( oils, antifreeze, windshield washer fluids, yard chemicals such as fertilizers, and weed killers out of your Boxer’s reach.
If your dog is prone to excessive chewing use chewing deterrents. Apply a small amount to a piece of fabric and let the dog try the taste.
Most probably it will find the taste repulsive ( he will shake his head or drool) so he will refuse even to touch the piece of anything that has that taste.
He will also learn the connection between the taste and the smell so he won’t touch the things on which you put chewing deterrent.
Buy a treat dispenser camera. If you are not at home but you would like to communicate with your dog that is home alone, this is a great thing. You can see your dog, ”speak” with him and at the end, he will get some treats ”from you”! This will help your dog with separation anxiety as he won’t feel alone that much.
Some owners leave the radio or TV on as they say that dogs feel less alone if there is a human voice there. You can try.
How To Discipline Your Boxer Dog?
Apart from what’s already said about training, physical activity, mental stimulation, chew toys and other things that prevent your Boxer from being destructive, it’s super important how do you behave with your dog and do you understand how does his brain work?
First of all, try never to punish, especially physically, your Boxer as this breed doesn’t respond well to this kind of correction. Positive reinforcement is a much better way to achieve anything you want. Since these dogs can be stubborn you’ll need a lot of patience and consistency but eventually, you’ll succeed.
Note that dogs are not capable to feel guilty. So when you come back from work and find a house in mess, you start getting very angry. Even before you say anything, your dog sees that you are upset and will do anything to change your mood because when you are upset, you are dangerous. He doesn’t know why you are upset though. You can interpret his acts as ”guilty” behavior. There is no point in yelling or scolding here, as your Boxer won’t understand why you are mad.
The only moment you should verbally correct your dog for doing inappropriate things is if you catch him doing that. If he did something 5 hours or even 10 minutes ago, he won’t associate your scold with his bad behavior.
The bottom line- it’s better to prevent than to cure. Do your best to prevent destructive behavior development in your Boxer.
