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Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
Ev lives the Lower Mainland of Beautiful British Columbia, Canada where she has been training dogs since 1969. She is experienced in many methods including clicker and motivational training. Ev is an original Superdog Performance Team member and her own dogs have travelled and performed with the Canadian SuperDogs since 1984. She has also served as an A.A.C. judge ans is an original Member/Trainer with the Dogwood Pacesetters Agility Club.
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[Edit]
9/25/2006
I just bought a 10 week old female Boxer/Pitbull mix who is such a sweetheart...until she plays/wrestles with my 6 month old intact male who's a Pitbull/German Shepard. He too is very sweet and such a lapdog! I've had her for about 10 days now and my male will not hurt her, but she goes after him as if she is trying to be the alpha. I keep her inside and him outside, so they see each other for about 2 hours a day. They play nice for about 5 minutes, but all they do is wrestle after 5 minutes, she starts to grown and snap at him which is odd because she is only 5lbs. and he is 50lbs. Please let me know what I should do, I need them both to stay out in the backyard as soon as they start getting along. Thank You.... Melissa (vetassist03, Arizona)
From what I can tell from your Question, you are in actuality, dealing with 3 different breeds/personalities. Keeping this in mind, you must use methods that will be effective for 3 different breeds.
Boxers are very bouncy, play rough with their front feet, are non-stop and take up to 3 years to mature - mix that with a Pitter that plays with their mouths, chest and feet, never gives up and usually has space issues, then you have quite a little bundle to control and not fun to play with for other animals or people.
Shepherds on the other hand play more with their bodies, voice and maneuvering, and tactics - mix that with a Pitter and you could end up with a dog that plays on 'their terms only', using whatever means they can to outwit their oppositi
on.
You are also dealing with a 'baby' ... time, patience and proper guidance should see improvement in a year to 2 years time. No 'play time' should be unsupervised, thus allowing her to wrestle with the older boy will only make her more determined to get her way. Usually the bitch does rule because she holds most of the cards. The boy is probably being very well because he realizes she is just a baby but that attitude could change as she ages.
Not being able to actually get a 'hands-on' evaluation with either dog makes it difficult to suggest a course of action other than to give them Individual Time, Training, Attention, etc. and hope that their personalities and characters allow them to eventually get along.
If you plan on leaving them together and alone in a backyard while you are at work or away for any length of time, then I'd be prepared that you may come home one day to just one dog. Without supervision, dogs will make their own rules and if one is in a bad mood and the other decides to push the right buttons, you have 3 breeds that are very tenacious when they need to be, athletic and capable of doing great harm in a short amount of time.
I would also suggest that you contact a trainer (preferably more than 1 for a 2nd opinion) that is familiar with all 3 breeds and is close enough to you that you can take training from them and they can actually see and touch the dogs. I certainly wouldn't expect the 2 dogs to get along without rough play for a few years down the road.
Canine Caretaker Training/Consulting
http://www.k9care.ca
"United We Stand."
http://www.standunited.ca
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