Housebreaking / Weight

Question
We have a 1 year old full blooded female boxer. We have tried to housebreak her and it has failed. She does good sometimes and other days we get nowhere with her. I have been trying for a little over a year now and it is getting us nowhere. What can I do? If I don't do something fast then I am going to have to get rid of her. She also has a weight problem she will go through spurts where she has weight and looks good then all of a sudden she looses it. We have had her wormed and she is up on her shots so we know she don't have worms. We feed her Ol' Roy dog food and sometimes table scraps also. Can you suggest anything?

Answer
Hi Trinity,

If your girl isn't house broken after a year, she's either got something medically wrong or you're doing something incorrectly or inconsistently.  Can you give me a better idea of your house breaking methods in order for me to help you, please?

As far as her weight...without seeing her photo...she, in a healthy state, should be a bit ribby.  Boxers spend the first year getting tall and the second year filling out.

Ol'Roy isn't the best quality dog food.  It's full of filler (corn, wheat, soy, etc.) rather than digestible food stuffs.  If you can afford a better food, PurinaOne is a midrange brand you may want to try, Canidae or Chicken Soup are higher level foods you may want to look at. The general rule of thumb is if you can buy it in a grocery store, it's not that great.

The better quality foods are more expensive, yes, however, you feed less because they have a higher digestibility.  While you may need to feed her 5 or 6 cups of Ol'Roy a day, you'd need to feed her 2.5 - 3 on a higher quality brand.