Why Train?
While it's true that there are more people who have assistance dogs, therapy dogs, police and military dogs, or simply companion dogs, the notion of the noble dog that runs wild and free no longer exists in most parts of the United States. Almost every city and county in the country has leash laws, vaccination requirements for dangerous and communicable diseases, and rules about where dogs are and are not welcome, unless they have specialized training that would allow them access to more places, such as police dogs, assistance dogs, and therapy dogs.
Along with that shift in why we have dogs, society has, in general, become less tolerant of dogs being dogs. If your dog barks too much, growls at someone, or bites, you will probably receive a visit from an animal control agency or worse. Oddly enough, in these more restrictive times, fewer trainers genuinely understand how to teach dogs what they need to know to be good dogs. Fewer people know how to productively channel those drives which still exist in dogs that were bred for a specific purpose or purposes, such as boxers.
Boxers are often called the gentle guard dog, or a hearing guard dog. But like any dog of any breed, they can be provoked, or if allowed to remain untrained and unchecked in their destructive puppy behavior, they can grow up thinking that any and all behavior is allowed. Without sufficient socialization and training to know that aggressive, or even just rough tendencies are not permissible, a young boxer can make any number of mistakes that can prove fatal to him.
When dogs attack people, there is a situation in which a dog with a particular drive was not protected from the downsides of its own drive. In other words, there were no other reasonable and appropriate outlets for that dog's energy and intelligence other than attacking, and the dog was allowed to do so. This is a very negative event for dogs overall. We live in litigious times, and training is our best defense against someone who wants to sue us for a mistake that our dog might possibly make.
If you do no formal training, you are still training your boxer. Lack of training is training. By lack of formal training, you may be teaching your boxer that it is all right to bark too much, to menace people, and possibly to bite those that disagree with him. All these behaviors constitute a risk to the owner of any dog who does them.
Boxers are not generally on dangerous dog lists across America at this time, but a slip up on the part of just a few, and they could be — which is why you need to train your boxer. Boxers are candidates for the dangerous dog lists not because they are generally dangerous or aggressive but because they are a powerful dog with lots of energy.
Bear in mind that the majority of the sins that get boxers put onto individual dangerous dog lists are errors in owner management and not innately dangerous characteristics of the breed that are always a risk to society. Train your boxer so he does not make the kind of errors in judgment that will result in making him and the rest of his breed known as a potentially dangerous dog to officials and others looking for reasons to ban dogs.
If your boxer is in a dog fight or in any incident where a human or animal is bitten or injured and in need of medical treatment, if you have proof that your boxer has an AKC title, a CGC (Canine Good Citizenship certificate), or even proof of regular obedience training, your boxer is not likely to be written up as the problem. Evidence of showing and training can reduce your liability insurance should you choose to carry it for owning dogs.
Even more important than reducing your risk in owning a powerful, good-sized canine is that through training, you have the opportunity to build a wonderful relationship with your boxer. You will learn more about your boxer through training than through almost anything else you do. And he will learn about you.
