Lady is Leah’s daughter from her 2017 litter.
Lady isn’t as calm as Leah, but in many Boxer circles she would still be considered as having the “calm Boxer gene”. She is often called a Goober. She has the funniest Boxer facial expressions and it might be her unique eyes that give her a wide range of emotion.
But her Mother Leah is a reverse brindle with a dark face and dog facial expressions aren’t as easily seen on black or dark-faced dogs.
While Leah never jumped on people Lady had to be trained not to jump. By the time she was two, she was pretty good at just being a Boxer wiggle-butt.
Lady Was Not a “Natural” Mom
Unlike her Mother Leah, Lady didn’t have the natural instinct to nurse evenly on both sides. It’s kinda like people and women. Some new Moms don’t read any books or attend any newborn classes and yet know exactly what to do.
Other young Mothers are more comfortable with doulas, La Leche coaches, and 4th-trimester classes. This was Lady. Once her puppies got teeth and started nipping while they nursed she freaked out a little.
I needed to sit by her while she nursed every 2-3 hours for about a week to basically be a La Leche coach to a dog. She needed to be shown that she could sit while her puppies nursed at three weeks of age.
But, She is Still a Great Mother Dog To Her Puppies
Don’t get me wrong, Lady is a wonderful Mother dog to her puppies. She was meticulous about cleaning up after them and the instant they peed or pooped she was licking and cleaning it up. Yup, Mother dogs eat their puppies poop.
This stops though when the pups start eating soft and solid food though. I guess it tastes bad then? I think it’s nasty, but it’s natural and keeps the puppies clean and healthy.
Lady is the Best at Correcting Bad Puppy Behavior
Lady did NOT tolerate bad puppy behavior. In many ways, she was more strict than her Mother.
The key to stopping puppy biting behavior is to start early. It is normal puppy behavior to chase, jump up and grab your Mom as a toddler. Well, six-week-old puppies are toddlers and they grab at Mom with their mouths.
She Would Stop her Puppies From Nipping
As you can imagine when you have 5-7 puppies nipping at your neck and face for your attention it can get tiring, irritating and downright painful.
Lady would have none of her puppies nipping and biting and would roll them over on their backs and give them a firm talking too. If they tried to get up she would pin them until they “agreed to behave”, or submitted.
We can learn a lot from animal behavior when it comes to teaching and training puppies and dogs.
We Are Not Your Typical Boxer Dog Breeders
At least we would like to think we are not. As Boxer dog breeders we go above the “standard” care of our puppies. We do early neurological training before their eyes open and have a number of puppy training tricks we start when they are just babies.
Both my husband and I are Animal Science majors and we use natural animal behaviors to expose and desensitize them to loud noises, different people, textures, and experiences.
Check Out Lady’s Boxer Puppies
Lady has only had one litter of puppies so far, but check out her Boxer puppies below.