| TJ |
UPDATE 121/5/08 - TJ has made tremendous strides from when we first got him. He is much more
relaxed and his aggression problems are getting much better. He's protective of the house on the initial
entry but after 10 minutes or so calms down and kind of warms up to people. He's doing much better in
the car as well. His favorite time of day is the morning by far, he gets really excited and can't wait for the
day to start.
He continues to struggle a bit with the mail truck, he really doesn't like it and goes bonkers when he
hears it coming down the street but we're working on it.
We're really proud of how much progress he's made in just 6 months and hopefully he continues on the
right track.
UPDATE 9/12/08 - TJ continues to do well. His behavior has been improving over the past month. He
is still protective of our home but we are continuing to work on that by having people over frequently.
He seems to be acting more like a puppy now than before and loves playing with Mo. He recently
graduated from obedience school which we believe helped him tremendously. Also, we are limiting
activities like car rides, which seem to put him into an aggressive state. We plan to sign him and Mo up
for an agility class to help them release some of their energy. They had a brief introduction to agility in
their obedience class and they both did well and seemed to like it. We think TJ is on the right track and
will continue to better each day.
UPDATE 8/13/08 - TJ is continuing to do well. We discovered that he has some aggression issues
towards people and we are working to correct them. We are currently using the gentle leader head
collar when he meets new people and it seems to be working well. We actually had about 20 people
over for a cookout and he did fantastic. He made one lunge at the beginning of the party but after that
he was very polite to everyone he met. He also seems to be adjusting to people entering our house
which has been great.
He has almost completed obedience school (2 classes left) and has done really well with basic
commands and walking on a leash. He did have one incident; he bit the assistant trainer in his second
class. The head trainer didn’t completely fault him because she said the assistant trainer was showing
dominant behavior towards him (not intentionally but she was leaning over him at his level). Since then
he has been fine and we keep the gentle leader on him during class.
One area where he is struggling a bit is in the car. While the car is moving he is fine but if it is stopped
and someone walks by he growls and lunges at the windows. He’s really strong and people get really
startled by this. We tried the gentle leader to correct the behavior but it hasn’t really seemed to help in
this situation. Our trainer has mentioned a “calming cap” but we haven’t tried it yet.
TJ has been a great addition to our family even if he is having a few problems. Mo loves having him
around and they are always playing. TJ loves to run and he is really fast! We make frequent trips to a
family member’s house with a fenced yard so he can get all that energy out of him. So far he’s done well
with our four year old niece but we’re always keeping a close eye on him around her because of his
past incident. We think that with some more training and lots of exercise his aggression issues will
subside.
UPDATE 7/14/08 - TJ has adjusted really well to our home. He is getting along great with our other
boxer Mo. When TJ first came home with us he couldn’t get enough of Mo. It was pretty apparent
that he had never lived with another dog before. After a few weeks some of the newness has worn off
and TJ is starting to recognize when Mo just wants to lie down and relax. In addition to Mo, TJ has met
several other dogs and has done great with them too. He is however a little too curious about our guinea
pigs. It’s not really a big deal, we just gate off the room that the guinea pigs are in and he hasn’t
made any attempts to jump it.
We’ve discovered that TJ likes water. He was running around at my in-laws one day and he just
jumped right into their pond. A few days later we brought the dogs swimming again. He seems to really
enjoy wading in the water and is slowly working his way to a full swim. We got both dogs life jackets
and they don’t mind wearing them at all.
This past weekend TJ had a few problems with meeting people and displaying some territorial issues.
On Saturday both he and Mo were in the car with the windows down and a family member who TJ has
met before went to pet him through the window and he lunged at them. Then Saturday night we had
some friends over, TJ has met them before but when they came into the house TJ lunged at our male
friend, he was fine with the female. He doesn’t make any noise before he lunges, he is silent. His
foster parents said he had some problems with new people entering the house and they would crate him
for 10-15 minutes before letting him out. It’s strange though because since we’ve had him heâ
€™s met people coming into the house before without a problem.
TJ starts obedience class on July 16th. Mo is joining him and we think it will be a great thing for both
dogs. We plan to speak with the trainer and the vet about his problems over the weekend and seek
some advice on the best way to deal with it.
6/15/08 - TJ has been adopted!
6/2/08 - TJ does the silliest thing--he actually chases his tail in the morning and when he catches it he
kind of licks the end then lets go and tries again. I thought at first he was having problems with it but he
never goes after it when he's laying down and really could reach it--he just likes chasing it! He does
need a fairly experienced owner since he has gotten pretty protective of the house and he's still a bit
suspicious of people outside the house. I can say from the past week that he probably shouldn't go to a
family with cats--he hasn't tried to kill our cats but he's lunging aggressively and has nipped one cat on
the tail.
I still think that that he'd be great for a family that already has a dog and where he'd be introduced
properly. He's been fine with other dogs on our walks and when at the kennel.
5/21/08 - We picked up T.J. at the vet on Monday after his neutering appointment and brought him
home. He's a big, muscular boy (though a bit thin at the moment--nothing a few good meals won't
solve.) He's bright white with a black nose and mustache. Everyone who sees him thinks he's a
sweetheart.
He's wonderful on lead during walks around the neighborhood and is great going into his crate. We
haven't seen any signs of significant separation anxiety, either. It's into the crate, a couple minutes of
whimpering and barking and then he settles down. He's a young dog and obviously needs a place
where he can get a fair amount of exercise, but he's very happy snoozing on our carpet in the evening.
He doesn't seem to have been allowed up on furniture in the past, as he shows no inclination to get up
on our couches or bed.
His interactions with our kids (5 and 8) have been great (though to my son's disappointment, he doesn't
show any interest in playing fetch). We're still monitoring how he gets along with our cats. He ranges
from completely ignoring them even as they walk practically over his head to get by him to seeming just
a touch *too* interested in them. Maybe he thinks he's playing, but the cats certainly aren't waiting
around to find out.
We haven't had any close encounters with other dogs yet, though he apparently had good relationships
with dogs with his previous owner. It seems, so far, that he could be introduced to another dog without
too much trouble. He's a touch suspicious of strangers (such as the mailman) but everyone he gets to
know for a few minutes seems to be accepted as a friend. We've had men working on the house this
week, for example, and he hasn't made so much as an aggressive blink at any of them.
He's going to be a great family dog for someone looking for an energetic guy with some of the basic
training already in place.
5/20/08 - TJ is a white boxer with a cute black nose and little black mustache--he's also a big guy, 67
pounds and underweight by at least 4 or 5 pounds. Very muscular and tall--he has long legs for a
boxer. He's been interested but not too interested in our cats so I think he could live with them if he
were given time to adjust. I've had a guy working in the house this morning and again, interested but not
aggressively so. I took him out for a walk this morning and for the first few seconds I thought 'oh, no,
he's going to be awful on lead,' but he's actually really great! I clicked my tongue at him every time he
moved ahead of me or wandered off to the side and by the end he was at my side, in perfect position. I
stopped a couple of times to let him walk around me, sniff, and do his business, but when I started
walking he was right with me. He's peed and pooped outside like a champ when we've taken him out--
he also marked in the kitchen when I was upstairs and my husband was in the shower so we're going to
leave him crated when we're not with him. Right now he's sacked out on the floor next to my chair,
sighing occasionally but definitely relaxed. He's a sweetie!
5/19/08 - We just picked up TJ from the vet where he was neutered. He's got that classic boxer look
except he's white, and he's a big boy--67 pounds but he's skinny and needs to put on 4 or 5 pounds
probably. The poor guy is wearing his plastic funnel, which is keeping him from doing the amount of
sniffing that he wants to do and he definitely is a little out of it. We'll send a real update and photos soon.
relaxed and his aggression problems are getting much better. He's protective of the house on the initial
entry but after 10 minutes or so calms down and kind of warms up to people. He's doing much better in
the car as well. His favorite time of day is the morning by far, he gets really excited and can't wait for the
day to start.
He continues to struggle a bit with the mail truck, he really doesn't like it and goes bonkers when he
hears it coming down the street but we're working on it.
We're really proud of how much progress he's made in just 6 months and hopefully he continues on the
right track.
UPDATE 9/12/08 - TJ continues to do well. His behavior has been improving over the past month. He
is still protective of our home but we are continuing to work on that by having people over frequently.
He seems to be acting more like a puppy now than before and loves playing with Mo. He recently
graduated from obedience school which we believe helped him tremendously. Also, we are limiting
activities like car rides, which seem to put him into an aggressive state. We plan to sign him and Mo up
for an agility class to help them release some of their energy. They had a brief introduction to agility in
their obedience class and they both did well and seemed to like it. We think TJ is on the right track and
will continue to better each day.
UPDATE 8/13/08 - TJ is continuing to do well. We discovered that he has some aggression issues
towards people and we are working to correct them. We are currently using the gentle leader head
collar when he meets new people and it seems to be working well. We actually had about 20 people
over for a cookout and he did fantastic. He made one lunge at the beginning of the party but after that
he was very polite to everyone he met. He also seems to be adjusting to people entering our house
which has been great.
He has almost completed obedience school (2 classes left) and has done really well with basic
commands and walking on a leash. He did have one incident; he bit the assistant trainer in his second
class. The head trainer didn’t completely fault him because she said the assistant trainer was showing
dominant behavior towards him (not intentionally but she was leaning over him at his level). Since then
he has been fine and we keep the gentle leader on him during class.
One area where he is struggling a bit is in the car. While the car is moving he is fine but if it is stopped
and someone walks by he growls and lunges at the windows. He’s really strong and people get really
startled by this. We tried the gentle leader to correct the behavior but it hasn’t really seemed to help in
this situation. Our trainer has mentioned a “calming cap” but we haven’t tried it yet.
TJ has been a great addition to our family even if he is having a few problems. Mo loves having him
around and they are always playing. TJ loves to run and he is really fast! We make frequent trips to a
family member’s house with a fenced yard so he can get all that energy out of him. So far he’s done well
with our four year old niece but we’re always keeping a close eye on him around her because of his
past incident. We think that with some more training and lots of exercise his aggression issues will
subside.
UPDATE 7/14/08 - TJ has adjusted really well to our home. He is getting along great with our other
boxer Mo. When TJ first came home with us he couldn’t get enough of Mo. It was pretty apparent
that he had never lived with another dog before. After a few weeks some of the newness has worn off
and TJ is starting to recognize when Mo just wants to lie down and relax. In addition to Mo, TJ has met
several other dogs and has done great with them too. He is however a little too curious about our guinea
pigs. It’s not really a big deal, we just gate off the room that the guinea pigs are in and he hasn’t
made any attempts to jump it.
We’ve discovered that TJ likes water. He was running around at my in-laws one day and he just
jumped right into their pond. A few days later we brought the dogs swimming again. He seems to really
enjoy wading in the water and is slowly working his way to a full swim. We got both dogs life jackets
and they don’t mind wearing them at all.
This past weekend TJ had a few problems with meeting people and displaying some territorial issues.
On Saturday both he and Mo were in the car with the windows down and a family member who TJ has
met before went to pet him through the window and he lunged at them. Then Saturday night we had
some friends over, TJ has met them before but when they came into the house TJ lunged at our male
friend, he was fine with the female. He doesn’t make any noise before he lunges, he is silent. His
foster parents said he had some problems with new people entering the house and they would crate him
for 10-15 minutes before letting him out. It’s strange though because since we’ve had him heâ
€™s met people coming into the house before without a problem.
TJ starts obedience class on July 16th. Mo is joining him and we think it will be a great thing for both
dogs. We plan to speak with the trainer and the vet about his problems over the weekend and seek
some advice on the best way to deal with it.
6/15/08 - TJ has been adopted!
6/2/08 - TJ does the silliest thing--he actually chases his tail in the morning and when he catches it he
kind of licks the end then lets go and tries again. I thought at first he was having problems with it but he
never goes after it when he's laying down and really could reach it--he just likes chasing it! He does
need a fairly experienced owner since he has gotten pretty protective of the house and he's still a bit
suspicious of people outside the house. I can say from the past week that he probably shouldn't go to a
family with cats--he hasn't tried to kill our cats but he's lunging aggressively and has nipped one cat on
the tail.
I still think that that he'd be great for a family that already has a dog and where he'd be introduced
properly. He's been fine with other dogs on our walks and when at the kennel.
5/21/08 - We picked up T.J. at the vet on Monday after his neutering appointment and brought him
home. He's a big, muscular boy (though a bit thin at the moment--nothing a few good meals won't
solve.) He's bright white with a black nose and mustache. Everyone who sees him thinks he's a
sweetheart.
He's wonderful on lead during walks around the neighborhood and is great going into his crate. We
haven't seen any signs of significant separation anxiety, either. It's into the crate, a couple minutes of
whimpering and barking and then he settles down. He's a young dog and obviously needs a place
where he can get a fair amount of exercise, but he's very happy snoozing on our carpet in the evening.
He doesn't seem to have been allowed up on furniture in the past, as he shows no inclination to get up
on our couches or bed.
His interactions with our kids (5 and 8) have been great (though to my son's disappointment, he doesn't
show any interest in playing fetch). We're still monitoring how he gets along with our cats. He ranges
from completely ignoring them even as they walk practically over his head to get by him to seeming just
a touch *too* interested in them. Maybe he thinks he's playing, but the cats certainly aren't waiting
around to find out.
We haven't had any close encounters with other dogs yet, though he apparently had good relationships
with dogs with his previous owner. It seems, so far, that he could be introduced to another dog without
too much trouble. He's a touch suspicious of strangers (such as the mailman) but everyone he gets to
know for a few minutes seems to be accepted as a friend. We've had men working on the house this
week, for example, and he hasn't made so much as an aggressive blink at any of them.
He's going to be a great family dog for someone looking for an energetic guy with some of the basic
training already in place.
5/20/08 - TJ is a white boxer with a cute black nose and little black mustache--he's also a big guy, 67
pounds and underweight by at least 4 or 5 pounds. Very muscular and tall--he has long legs for a
boxer. He's been interested but not too interested in our cats so I think he could live with them if he
were given time to adjust. I've had a guy working in the house this morning and again, interested but not
aggressively so. I took him out for a walk this morning and for the first few seconds I thought 'oh, no,
he's going to be awful on lead,' but he's actually really great! I clicked my tongue at him every time he
moved ahead of me or wandered off to the side and by the end he was at my side, in perfect position. I
stopped a couple of times to let him walk around me, sniff, and do his business, but when I started
walking he was right with me. He's peed and pooped outside like a champ when we've taken him out--
he also marked in the kitchen when I was upstairs and my husband was in the shower so we're going to
leave him crated when we're not with him. Right now he's sacked out on the floor next to my chair,
sighing occasionally but definitely relaxed. He's a sweetie!
5/19/08 - We just picked up TJ from the vet where he was neutered. He's got that classic boxer look
except he's white, and he's a big boy--67 pounds but he's skinny and needs to put on 4 or 5 pounds
probably. The poor guy is wearing his plastic funnel, which is keeping him from doing the amount of
sniffing that he wants to do and he definitely is a little out of it. We'll send a real update and photos soon.
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State: MA
Age: 2 years
Weight: 67 lbs
Sex: Male
Neut/UTD Yes/Yes
Coat Color: White
Docked Tail: No
Cropped Ears: No
Children under 4: Unsure
Children over 4: Yes
Separation Anxiety: No
Other Dogs: Yes
Cats: No
Crate Trained: Yes
Obedience Trained: Some
Leash Trained: Yes
Micro-chipped: No
Adoption Fee: $300
Age: 2 years
Weight: 67 lbs
Sex: Male
Neut/UTD Yes/Yes
Coat Color: White
Docked Tail: No
Cropped Ears: No
Children under 4: Unsure
Children over 4: Yes
Separation Anxiety: No
Other Dogs: Yes
Cats: No
Crate Trained: Yes
Obedience Trained: Some
Leash Trained: Yes
Micro-chipped: No
Adoption Fee: $300
