Why should you follow this blog? What makes it unique? Well that is an excellent set of questions. We try to post some fun stuff on the blog and lots of pictures of Lucy (the title character of the blog) and an occasional video or two. We write about things that matter to dog lovers and especially boxer dog lovers. So, here are the details of who Lucy the White Boxer Dog is...

Lucy the white boxer dog has been in our family for a little over six years now. She is not truly white but rather what is referred to as a "check boxer" due to her spots. She is not an albino! She has brown eyes and splashes of black on her in addition to her spots. She is a full blooded boxer. She is also extremely healthy with the exception of having a sensitive stomach.

Want to learn more about Lucy and the things we write about her, follow her blog. Better yet, check out some of the older posts. There is a lot of information on the care of boxers and dogs in general... We look forward to see your comments on some of the posts... Happy blogging to all!


Thursday, July 2, 2009

Just got back...

Well I just got back from Europe. My business trip was successful and our customer is happy with the new course-ware that we delivered. The next couple of posts will be about some of the things that I did while over in Europe and not working. I trust that no one will mind if I write about something other than Lucy. Although I must tell you, since I've been back she has not left my side for a moment when I'm at home. I guess she missed me? I keep telling Terri that Lucy is her dog and I'm Lucy's dog. The hierarchy of the pack is well established!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Business Trip


I'm on a business trip to The Nederlands and I managed to find some time to go see some of the sites in Germany. Wouldn't you know it; anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

I awoke around 5:30am Saturday excited about the events of the day. I had planned for this event very carefully. I showed up about an hour early for breakfast at the hotel that I'm staying at. I am in The Nederlands with some folks that I work with. And two of us have to drop two other at the train station to go to the airport in Amsterdam. We meet them in the dining room and proceeded to the car to go to the Euro Rail. Yes, you guessed it; one of them left a bag in the breakfast area with their passport inside and their entire ID. Luckily this is a fairly safe and honest place; it was exactly where they left it.

A trip anywhere is an adventure here, especially if you don't speak Dutch. But following the GPS' instruction in the car gets you where you want to go eventually. You do follow the great circle route however!

After dropping our coworkers off Bob Hartoon and I set out for Koln, Germany. Following the route on the GPS once again we made it to our route A4, which is part of the autobahn, arriving about 10AM. Well as soon as we arrived I was excited about shooting some photos of the Cathedral of Koln. This is a church that dates back to the 4th century. Anyway, I got out my D-40 and wouldn't you know it, the battery is dead. It was fully charged the night before but I had left it on over night after downloading some pictures to my laptop computer. Ok I think, I'll just use my cell phone camera and there is no need to get upset. You guessed it again; my cell phone is dead as a brick. Apparently I had left it on as well. So, with no charger to charge my camera or my phone I was stuck using the old portable Kodak disposable with 5 shots left. We took a total of 3 pictures.

After travelling all that way to get only 3 pictures of a structure that I think I could spend a week shooting and not get everything I wanted was a total tragedy! Needless to say I went shopping in Koln and found two different types of chargers. One for my phone in the car with and then one that I can use universally to charge just about any lithium battery made! Moral of the story, don't leave home without you battery charger, it'll set you back about 40 Euros to fix the problem...

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Inside every Boxer beats the heart of a clown...

Lucy went to the park today. She ran like she's never run before. Hopping and skipping through the grass with the greatest of ease. Although we were there for less than a half an hour I can honestly say she had a great time.

Boxers in general require a great deal of physical activity to be healthy and happy. They are great athletes and require a good deal physical training. You can train a boxer to do just about anything if you can break through the inner clown that is in every Boxer. This requires patients.

Boxers have the ability to be a guard dog, herder,hunter, the best of family pets and even a retriever if necessary. They are incredibly intelligent dogs. All a person has to do is introduce the activity to the dog in a positive manner and praise them when they get it right. Once they understand that it pleases you to see them do the activity, they'll gladly perform for you over and over again. This is part of their Psyche, they want to make you happy! This is probably true for most dogs, but especially true for the Boxer!

The one thing you must do to get your Boxer to perform for you is have patients and provide them with the training they need to be successful. Training will require time on your part however! If you have a dog that just doesn't seem to be catching on, you will have to do one of two things, either spend more time on training or find someone well versed in the type of activity you are looking for and have them train the dog.

One thing I will caution you on is the trainer. Make sure you examine the training methods used by the trainer. You want to find someone who trains through positive reinforcement versus someone who uses more stern methods. People to ask about training will include your Vet or maybe the folks at a quality boarding house such as Pet Smart or Pet Co. They usually have the inside track on quality trainers...

Yes Lucy is a big clown but I like to consider her a big well trained clown that loves people and wants to please all.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Cruelty to Animals

My daughter Whitney, who lives down in Abilene, TX sent me an article to read about a person who was being charged with cruelty to animals. It seems that the person in question abandoned her two dogs and the house she was living in. The two dogs in question were locked in the home for almost two months with limited food and water.

The two dogs were finally rescued when the home was to be inspected by the company trying to sell the abandoned home. Both dogs were on the verge of starvation. It seems that they had been living off of whatever they could find in the home and their own fecees. Now this is cruelty at its hight!

In these days of homes for unwanted animals and shelters, why would anyone just lock an animal in a house and walk away? What kind of reasoning goes on in the mind of an individual that would do something like this? It would almost be kinder just to take the critter out and shoot it? Of course I'm not advocating shootting a dog that you don't want but I think you get my meaning. There are a lot of options for caring for an animal that you don't want or can't afford to take care of!!!

In my way of thinking, I trust that the individual responsible for this has the book thrown at her! There is just no excuse for this type thing happening.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Ear Infections


Wow, has it been a whole week sense I've written in this blog. Well I've been busy to say the least! The spousal unit had surgery,work is piling up, and Lucy has an ear infection. How's that for a start?

Today's topic is ear infections and Boxers. Lucy is on her second ear infection in the last 3 months. I found out recently that Boxers are very prone to yeast infections in their ears, especially "White Boxers" with their light colored skin (pink to be exact).

The spousal unit, my wife Terri, was discussing this topic with my daughter who happens to be an ex-Vet Tech about the recurrence of the ear infections. What we found out was White Boxers, who usually have some type of difficulty with either their earring or their eye site, are very susceptible to yeast infections in their ears. Most Vets recommend that you wash their ears out every other week or so to prevent infections. This was a total surprise to me! After years of dog ownership, mostly Golden Retrievers, I felt totally stupid!!! I had no idea, and the Vet never told me that I needed to clean my dogs ears that frequently.

There is a solution that that you can buy from your dog's Vet that will totally prevent the occurrence of ear yeast infection. If I had only known that I needed to perform this action on a frequently recurring basis, I would have fulfilled my obligation! Now I'm having to treat her problem, which occurs mostly in the right ear with "Remicin Ointment". "Remicin" can only be obtained from a Vet. It contains gentamicin sulfate which is a sulfa drug. It's amazing how it keeps Lucy from scratching at her ears and it works really fast. The next step is to take her back into the Vet for a proper ear cleaning.

So what's the story here, I'm not sure? All I know now is my favorite critter in the whole world needs to have her ears cleaned every other week! A lesson learned and one that I would like to pass on to other fans of the Boxer Dog, especially the White Boxer. Best of luck to you with your favorite critter...

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

What a crazy couple of weeks…

What do you do with a dog that is highly active and someone gets ill in the family? Well here’s our story on the topic.

About 10 days ago Terri, my wife, gives me a call and asks me to meet her up at the emergency room at the hospital. She was having some pain in her right side and thought it might be an appendicitis problem? Well it turns out that the problem is something else but it will require surgery to correct.

It took a few days to get the surgery scheduled, so Terri sat me down and worked out a schedule where I could be supportive to her and also take care of our critter Lucy. Terri and I are kind of on an island, dependent upon one another due to the fact that our family is spread out all over the United States and no one but “us” in Memphis. The schedule was arranged to allow me to support her needs as well as Lucy’s schedule of events.

We began our morning of the surgery by getting up early in order to take care of Lucy. She and I even made our morning walk together while Terri put the last minute items together to go to the hospital. Our show time at the hospital was scheduled for 10:30AM with the actual surgery to take place at 12:00PM. The operation actually took about 45 minutes with the recovery room time of approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Once Terri came into the room that she would be spending the night, I ensured that she was ok and comfortable then she directed me to go home and take care of Lucy. Lucy met me at the back door with gratitude. She was bit behind in her daily schedule and needed some outdoor time and a treat. Which I accommodated! Then we spent a little time together and I was back off to the hospital to take care of Terri again.

Upon my arrival back at the hospital I found Terri to be ok but heavily sedated with pain medication. I was going to spend the night at the hospital with her but she insisted that go home and take care of things there and let her get some rest. Besides she said, “What are you going to do here, watch me sleep”? So I spent about 3hours with her and then I went back home and did the rest of the items she had scheduled for me to do and spent some time with Lucy.

Ok, so what’s the moral of the story Bob? I guess it goes something like this! Responsibility can be met with the proper schedule. Lucy is part of our family and our responsibility, if I had not been able to perform the tasks required to meet all the needs of our family (Lucy included), I would have to have come up with a different plan, one that would have required us to board Lucy in order for her to get the care and attention that she needs. Bottom line, take care of your responsibilities…

Monday, May 11, 2009

Why would someone get a dog that they don't really want?

I was reading an interesting article the other day in a Charles Schwab newsletter and it hit me like a ton of bricks. The article was stating that "35% of all investors said that emotions influenced their investment decisions. But recent brain scanning reveals that emotions are actively triggered in decisions involving risk and reward, indicating a lack of self-awareness that may prevent investors from reaching their investment goals." My ah-ha moment came to me when I was up on the local adopt a pet site and saw so many homeless animals. People are buying dogs and cats based on emotion without thinking the process through!

Here's how it works- The human brain can be broken down into two parts when it comes to acquiring new things or taking a risk such as a new puppy or kitten. The two parts of the psyche are referred to as the "Reflexive" and "Reflective" brains. Our inner brain (Reflexive) reacts instinctively and emotionally while our outer brain (Reflective) manages our reasoning and our ability to comprehend what we are truly doing. Have you ever gotten scared and reacted to some stimulus? If you did, what happened was emotional and reactive I'm sure. This is your survival mode (Reflexive brain) which is also the part of the brain that addictive behaviors are stored. We achieve great gratification by satisfying the Reflexive brain.

I believe this is why people get animals that they really don't want or need. They get caught up in the emotion of the moment and don't take the time to reflect on what dog or cat ownership is really about or requires. I'd like to take a survey on how many folks have acquired an animal that they ended up cutting loose or turning over to a shelter because they didn't think through the process.

I guess the bottom line of this post is, if you are thinking about getting a new animal, you should really think through the process. Is this animal going to be an inside or outside critter? Who is going to be the primary care giver to the animal? What are the costs associated with owning this animal? Is this animal going to be an integral part of your family or is someone else going to manage it for you? If you don't think through the process before you get your new pet, I'll bet that there will be another homeless animal awaiting adoption in your area.

Please, think before you buy!

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Some Reflection Time...

It's another rainy day in Memphis! Most of Tennessee is under about a foot of water today. It always rains here in Memphis during the "Memphis in May Festival." That's why a lot of the locals refer to it as the "Memphis in Mud Festival." For those of you who are not familiar with this event, it is a week long music fest that is put on once a year here in Memphis. A lot of great stuff goes on in the downtown area including many concerts from great acts from all over the globe and some of the best barbecue in world is cooked. But this is not what I wanted to write about today.

Last weekend was beautiful weather! The temp got into the 80's and Terri and I decided to take the Mini to the "British Car" gathering up on the north side of town in Millington area. We didn't take Lucy on the trip because we had just cleaned the Mini up for the show. But I wish we had.

At the show we viewed many great old British sports cars. A couple were models that Terri and I had once owned. My favorite two cars in the entire world were there- the 72' Triumph TR-6 and a 68' MGB. I've owned models of both of these cars in my youth. What a great day it was to see these cars again! Anyway, this is not what I wanted to write about either.

What I want to write about is something that I observed at the car show. I saw people there enjoying their day out in the sunshine. They brought their kids and some brought their dogs. One dog in particular made an impression on me. He was a "Bernese Mountain Dog" (I hope I spelled that right?), a cancer survivor and an adopted pet. His mate was also there, also of the same breed and also adopted.

What impressed me about the male,we'll call him "Sam", was that Sam had a leg amputated due to cancer! Now this is one big dog, and to be running around like he was, was most impressive! The missing leg did not slow him down one bit! He was happy and very approachable. Both he and his mate were two of the best behaved dogs I have seen in a long time. Great pets, that had been adopted and are happy and well.

Two cute boxer puppies were also at the show. Sam and his mate greeted them like they were long lost family members. Sam was so gentle with the young dogs. I couldn't help but be please with the nurturing behavior that I observed.

To wrap this up, I would just like to put in a plug for adoption of pets. Even though some animals may appear to have a handicap, with love and patience on your part they can live happy and healthy and provide you with the companionship that only a survivor like Sam can offer. It was truly a great experience for both Terri and I to meet this brave dog and his wonderful owner...

If you are thinking about a new pet, check out the adoption centers in your area. There many more great examples of wonderful dogs to be found.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Combination Approach To Feeding Your Boxer!


Most commercial foods will offer your Boxer great sources of protein and vitamins, although fresh food contains far more essential sources. Chicken and meat for instance, have far more protein and minerals than any type of commercial dog food. Fish is anotsher great choice, as it contains a lot of the protein your dog needs to maintain a healthy body and brain.

Although you can get commercial food for your Boxer, the ideal way to feed is to use a combination approach of both commercial food and fresh people foods. Most commercial food is good for your Boxer, although it lacks nutrients and vitamins that fresh food has. Vets will tell you that fresh food is good, providing you don’t overdo it. Boxers love fresh food as well, as tshey can smell it a mile away. If it smells good to them - they’ll want it!

All dogs are well within the capacity of staying healthy, although you need to provide them with the minerals they need. Each dog is an individual, meaning that you can’t continue to feed her the same food on a daily basis. Boxers love people food, and they also love variety. What they need one day may vary tshe next, so you should always mix it up a bit and give them something different each day.

To be on the safe side, you should give your Boxer a little bit of everything. This way, she will get everything she needs with her diet. When you design the diet for your growing Boxer, you should always make sure to include animal protein. This is very important for your Boxer, as she has to have it. Without animal protein, your dog will find herself literally struggling to stay healthy.

To keep your Boxer healthy, it is very important that she gets quality nutrition. Although quality nutrition is very important, you should never let her eat so much that she gains weight too fast. If you monitor her diet and know exactly what you are feeding her, she should remain in her weight class. Sometimes this can be hard to help though, especially if your Boxer starts to develop allergies to a certain type of food.

If you ever have any questions regarding the diet of your Boxer, you shouldn’t hesitate to ask your vet. Your vet could make some recommendations for you, even tell you the best type of commercial food for your dog. Depending on her individual needs, what she requires may be totally different than what another dog needs. As long as you keep your dog on a healthy diet and make sure she gets the food she needs - she should grow to be a healthy dog with plenty of energy.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Socializing Your Boxer!


Let's start from the begining with your Boxer. Socializing your Boxer is very important and it should be started at a very young age. As you may already know, all dog breeds behave different in front of strangers, with some dogs choosing to ignore people altogether. They may choose to glance at someone, then go on to pay no attention to him. On the other hand, some dogs are the total opposite and love to meet everyone they can. These types of dogs love attention, and will take any attention they can get.

Some Boxers are happy with those they have come to know in their own family, or those they have selected to be friends. Others on the other hand, may feel comfortable just around those of the same sex. Most Boxers like children, although there are a few rare cases in which certain types of Boxers like adults but not children. This is extremely rare, and is normally due to the way they were bred or raised.

When your puppy is between the ages of 8 weeks and 8 months, socializing him is extremely important. During this time, you should always do everything you can to ensure that your Boxer meets other people. Although he may be shy at first and not have much interaction, he will eventually come around. You will need to be patient with him during these times, as he will need quite a bit of reassurance from you.

Your dog’s parents also contribute to socialization. If the parents of your Boxer were good with people and other dogs, the gene could very well be passed on to your dog. On the other hand, if the parents were shy or aggressive dogs, those genes could be passed on as well. Pups inherit the traits of their parents ,which is why it is very important to make sure that the dogs being bred are compatible with each other - and share a passive temperament.

If your puppy was separated from his mother before he reached the age of seven weeks, he won’t learn many of the social signals taught to him by his mom and his siblings. Boxer pups that are brought to a new home earlier than seven weeks will normally tend to end up somewhat aggressive around people. Although they may be aggressive towards people, they may be shy or fearful around other dogs, as they lack the social skills needed to be themselves. Or you could have a reversal where the Boxer is shy or fearful around people and aggressive toward other dogs.

Sometimes, if a puppy was injured or frightened during his early years, he can end up with a state of trauma. This type of thing leaves a huge scar in the mind of a puppy, making it very hard for him to get past it. Most Boxer pups that have been injured or frightened by an individual never get past it. They may end up fearing humans in general, or being very aggressive towards them when they feel frightened. When you take your puppy home for the first time, you should always make him feel welcomed, and never let anyone or anything harm him.

To better socialize your Boxer, you should always make sure that he gets plenty of interaction with other people and other dogs in his breed. This way, your Boxer will learn how to socialize at any early age. When he gets older in life, he will carry these skills with him. Boxers that are sheltered or not given the proper amount of interaction will turn out shy towards people and other dogs. With your Boxer being your companion for life - you should always ensure that he gets the socialization he needs.

Monday, April 20, 2009

A great image!

I found this picture on the Internet and had to share it with all those who live with a white boxer. This picture so typifies our white boxer Lucy! I'm interested in acquiring pictures of other dogs to post on this blog or links to other photos. If you have some great shots of dogs doing crazy or cute things, please pass them to me and I'll post them or link to them.
thanks, :)

Sunday, April 19, 2009

A thought on basic command training for your Boxer!


My friends over at "Dogs Deserve Freedom (their address is in the Links section of this blog)", brought up a training issues that I thought I would address on this site. "Yelling at your dog is not very good for many corrections."

In my day job I sometimes teach a Communication Course. One of the stats that we through out there is that words have the least amount of meaning in any conversation due to the filter involved in the Communication Loop! The stats break down something like this:

Words = 7% of meaning
Tone = 35% of meaning
Body Language = 58% of meaning

Guess what, your dog actually understands about 6-10 words total and I'm talking about a truly intelligent dog here! This is a big filter to get through. You may as well be speaking French to your dog! What they do understand is tone, body language, and association of meaning. They reach this association of meaning through training, repetition, and socialization.

So, yelling at your dog to get him to sit, hold, come to you, or whatever you are trying to achieve is the least effective method of training your dog! What follows are some tips for training that I've found to be very effective in dealing with our Boxer- Lucy.

When we were training Lucy we found that if we used the formula of:

Name it!
Praise it!
Click it!
Feed it!

You need to start off by buying yourself a clicker, some dog treats, a leash, and some time. Don't expect your dog to get it right the first couple of times you do this training. Association of meaning may take longer for some dogs. Pavlov didn't get his dogs to salivate on the first attempt either!

For the sit command, start off with a treat in your hand raise it above your dog's head. This will induce him to look up and bring his rear end down, sometimes in the position that you want him in. Once he achieves the sitting position, click your clicker and give him the treat. Every time you have a positive behavior that you are trying to teach, click the clicker and reinforce with something the dog likes such as a treat, a favorite toy, or praise. Lucy likes treats so we use treats. Yelling won't be necessary if association and reinforcement methods of training are used.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

What makes a good dog owner?


I've been doing a lot of reading and reflecting on this subject lately and here's what I've found!

To be a good owner? First of all, you can't own a dog! You can be a member of their pack and they can be a member of your family, but you just can't own a dog. You own things not dogs! So let's change the subject to- How do you become the good alpha member of your dog's pack and they a trusted member of your family? It works both ways.

First of all, you must be willing to put in the time to train them on how to behave. This means providing them with the tools to be good family members. You must supply them with the basics first- A clean, dry and inviting environment that they can call their own. Just like with a child, you need to do a bit of dog proofing around the house as well as setting the boundaries of good behavior. You must supply them with exercise time and toys that are theirs. And most of all you must be consistent in what you do with them and for them.

Yesterday I wrote about Lucy's routine. Dogs love a routine! They like to be able to predict what the next event of the day is going to be. Lucy's routine is on a schedule and she let's us know when that schedule is out of whack! Her behavior will tell us every time that we've messed up her schedule. A typical event that would indicate a problem is when she gets on the counter in the kitchen or perhaps has an accident in the house. These types of behaviors indicate to us that we've obviously messed up her routine. Yes, I'm saying that it's not necessarily the dog's problem, maybe the alpha person has done something to throw the dogs behavior out of whack!

Hey, the phone just rang and I have to run! I'll continue this thread tomorrow when I have more time. Let me know what you think of the ideas presented. Later!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Stay on Schedule...


Wow, I didn't realize the schedule that Lucy keeps! It's been unchanged ever since Lucy came to live with us! Our day begin at 6:30am when Lucy jumps into bed with us. Imagine 65 lbs. of dog jumping into bed with you every morning! She always manages to push me out of bed to get to the most comfortable and warm spot she can find. She sleeps for the 30 minutes it takes us to get ready for work.

At 7:30, she's ready for her morning walk. If I'm not ready, she sits there and woo-woos at me until I am! Every morning when I open the garage door she's looking for the neighborhood squirrels to "mock" chase. Yes, she's on a leash! I go flying out of the garage to the park area behind our house in the tow of "Lucy the eager boxer/hunter."

By 7:45 we are back into the house. Actually I drop her off the leash and she runs to the back door of the house. She knows that Terri has her breakfast already in her bowl and she's excited to get to it!

In order to accommodate Lucy's needs, I leave from work to go to lunch around 11am. When she was a pup I'd go home mid-morning and then again at noon. But now that she's more mature, she can handle things until about 11:15am when I get home to walk her. During the lunch walk we repeat the morning adventure of hunting the local critters and do our business. We then spend some quality time together at lunch playing, training and eating.

The afternoon break is no longer necessary but when she was a pup, Terri or I would break out of the office to go let her out for a potty break. But now the schedule is to wait for me to get home around 5:15pm. This is when we spend more time outside exploring the neighborhood and taking longer walks. One thing I can say about Lucy is she never tires of taking walks... most boxers don't!

Terri and I keep different schedules. She gets home later than I do, therefore we have that event to look forward to. Lucy knows when she should be home and her behavior reflects the fact that when either of us aren't on schedule she let's us know about it. Anyway, Lucy greets Terri with the classic boxer dance when she gets home and then strategically places herself between Terri and I. Yes, she likes to rule the pack...she's an alpha, which means I have to be an alpha+!

Lucy's next big event is after dinner when we go out one more time for our evening walk. This is the walk where she has to ensure everything is secure for the evening and a last chance to check for the squirrels again! This usually happen around 9pm in the evening.

Now you may be asking yourself right about now, why is this guy writing about a schedule for his dog? Because, in order to have a dog as a member of your family you have to make a commitment to do the right things. Raising a well socialize and behaved dog requires a lot of dedication on the owner's behalf. It's a commitment to the care of another one of God's creatures. What you sign up for when you have a dog is much like what you sign up for when you decide to raise children. It requires you to be caregiver and schedule keeper. I'll talk more about this in my next post.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Memphis Tigers

If you've been following the news on sports at all lately, you'll know that all good things come to an end. The University of Memphis has lost their head basketball coach to the University of Kentucy. I guess they just had to much money for him to say no too! Well the entire basketball program is up in the air at the moment. The grade "A" recrutes that were coming to Memphis are now headed elsewhere. As a matter of a fact, we no longer even have a basketball coaching staff at U of Memphis. Hard times are here again! The bright spotlight on Memphis has extinguished itself, maybe to never relight again. We'll just have to wait and see! A short tradition of great basketball in the City of Memphis has come and gone... This is a mystery wrapped in an enigma!