Exercise

Question
Hi,
I'm 14 years old and have finally managed to persuade parents to buy a boxer puppy! There are a few problems though. Firstly, the dog will be alone about 3 days a week when I go to school (so 7-8 hours) some day my mum works from home though. Is this okay? I would walk the dog before and after school and leave him plenty of toys to occupy him, of course. Also, I would give the dog roughly 30 minutes of exercise a day (spanning over the walks before and after school) is this enough? Please reply soon!

Answer
Don't keep the puppy crated for hours and hours, and make sure you have a room that is "puppy proofed" for him.  This is the same as a "child proof" room.

The only toys he or she should have while being unsupervised, is KONG toys, Nyla bones, and the like. No soft toys, no rawhide bones, no plastics other than KONG and Nyla.  The puppy can tear other toys up and choke to death.

The puppy needs socializing-- family and friends.  The pup should not remain alone for more than 30 minutes.

If your mom is home some days- then she needs to allow the pup to be with her and play and socialize.

Exercise... yes, in a fenced backyard- paly ball, tug-of-war, fetch, run and chase, anything to get the pup active. On walks: use a leash and leash train the pup.  I would start off training in a confined area, the fenced in back yard where the pup feels comfortable because it is familiar. Once the pup is leashed trained, you can take the puppy on walks slowly.  No more than a block and back in order to see how th epup behaves to other people, dogs, and traffic.

Join for free: Boxerworld.com and go into the "forum" as there is a lot of info about your Boxer puppy and all the members are Boxer owners.