Anyone ever train a Boxer dog to hunt?

[Bluedsteel]

I have read that Boxers are decendants of a popular hunting dog from the 1800's called the Bullenbeiszer. I don't think they would be very good for retrieving waterfowl due to being poor swimmers and having no undercoat but they must still have some natural hunting instincts left. Anyone here know of anyone using a Boxer for hunting?

Here is an interesting article on this subject. http://www.boxer-dogs-guide.com/huntingboxerdogs.html

[ryanhuntslots]

you ever tried to train a boxer to do anything?? tough job in my experience

[Bluedsteel]

Well I think it depends on the dog, I have a 1 1/2 year old and he learns things quite quickly. I hear people say that they are difficult to train but I guess I lucked out. He is extremely haywire when excited but otherwise very well behaved.

[Lone Ranger]

Hopefully you find one brighter than our two. Beautiful dogs, amazing personalities and very gentle, but wow are they ever not smart (at least these two). I could go on for hours with stories about the hair-brain stunts they pull off, but they do stay in the yard and they never attack anything (absolutely great with small kids).

My favourite stunt is to tie a string to a gate and open or close it just before they're about to walk through. They'll stand there barking at it until they're foaming at the mouth :mrgreen: I do it continuously and they still don't figure it out. Pretty funny to watch. LR

[Bluedsteel]

At least they are entertaining lol. If there is one thing they are good at its getting in to trouble.....well actually mine is pretty good at drooling too, he'll shake and cover everyone in the room with slobber. Great dog regardless.

[mainland hunter]

Ours is trained pretty good but he is a cross. His main problem is that he has trouble focusing. They are so excitable, it takes a long time, but if you get them to calm down they can learn pretty good. Some things he does he comes across as a complete idiot, but then there's other things that makes me think that he's a genius. They are one of the most entertaining dogs for sure. I'm taking mine hunting this year for the first time so we'll see how it goes.

[Bluedsteel]

Ours is trained pretty good but he is a cross. His main problem is that he has trouble focusing. They are so excitable, it takes a long time, but if you get them to calm down they can learn pretty good. Some things he does he comes across as a complete idiot, but then there's other things that makes me think that he's a genius. They are one of the most entertaining dogs for sure. I'm taking mine hunting this year for the first time so we'll see how it goes.


I'd love to hear how that goes for you, keep us posted!

[bowhunterbruce]

as a kid my parents raised boxers for both show and guard dogs.,and from everything i remember ,and i did the majority of the obediance training they to this day were some of the smartest and the dumbest dogs out there.when it comes to the guard stock, those dogs would die to please thier owners.smart,eager,loyal and would learn at an incredible pace.it seamed like everything was a fun game to them at everything you asked of them.
the main reason was that because they were so smart all training had to start at a young age and consistany was very very important.i would walk them everyday after school for at least an hr each going through every command over and over again.after about 3 months of this they would be able to be completely off leash for the entire walk and do every command with only useing hand signals and doing those at a fast paced speed.and all they wanted was the thrill of the excitment in my voice,as well as the love they recieved from doing it all right.
when it came to the show stock, no real training was allowed because of the way dogs are shown,other then slowly running along side of a handler and standing still for a judge to squeeze,look at thier teeth and look at thier gait as they are on the move.any form of obienece training would have a dog sit down when they came to a stop or something dumb like that and it would cause them a potential loss of championship points.
as those dogs got older the dumb stuff was never ending as a few have already expressed.
boxers are of the working breeds,they really love to work and please thier owners but this has to be a consistant work effort (at least daily).and teaching any working dog to do anything never leaves them to want to learn,yes you can teach and old dog new tricks when it comes to boxers yet at the same time every dog is only going to be as good as the effort of thier owners and the age at when thier training starts.
one does need to be realistic though as your not going to use a boxer for retrieving birds but recovering wounded animals is possible etc etc
bruce

[Mr. Dean]

Bluedsteel;688025
Anyone here know of anyone using a Boxer for hunting?

I have a pure-bred and he is a hunter. And a good one at that.

No good for water sports but if it's on the ground, it comes back to my feet (grouse, squirrels, rabbits, coons...), every time. I initially trained him to trail blood but has become very good at following sent trails -----> Any time I've asked him to "go get it", he has, or found the place that the critter holed-up in, to die.

I haven't tried him in a duck field yet but would think he'd take to retrieving ducks from pasture, pretty fast. He's really been an amazing dog.

HATES bears.....

[Kody94]

My family has had about 7 boxers over the years....I wanted a dog that was useful in the bush, so I have a lab.

Boxers are great pets.

:)

[GoatGuy]

There's a difference between hunting and retrieving. With a face and build like that thinking more something you'd use for catching or running big game not something you'd use for birds or waterfowl.

The hunting instinct is probably not something they've been bred for recently. Guess is they've been bred in favour of 'looks' because that's what's important in dogs.:roll:

Never owned one but met a few of 'em that ended up as complete meatheads, a direct reflection of their owners.

Told "he's great for protecting the house when we aren't home". Personally rather not have a dog than have a dog that has to be locked up when there are kids over, but hey that's just me.

[mikey]

my wife has a boxer/border collie cross that loves to put coons up a tree with my hound. once their treed though she then begins to rip apart any stick,log,bush,or tree trunk thats anywhere close.. kinda funny to watch.