House Training an Adult Dog?

Frugal Sunnie
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April 13, 20160 found this helpful

Boxers who've been rehomed from a happy home, or abused and then rehomed, tend to suffer separation anxiety and demonstrate it by two distinct behaviours - eliminating in the house, and chewing anything they can get their teeth into - furniture, doors, walls, floor coverings... The best thing to do is be patient (difficult, I know) because the dog is unfortunately at an age now where there are no real solutions. You can try creating a safe space - not the crate, or a room containing anything your Boxer can destroy, btw; use disposable tarpaulins to cover the floor in the safe space (these come on a roll in any DIY or big box paint department), these are relatively inexpensive, and make clean-ups fast and easy whilst protecting floors. Use one part of the room as an eating and sleeping area - no tarp, and the rest of the room with enough tarps laid down to cover the floor. Consider a radio playing softly - some Boxers like classical, others prefer talk radio.

Talk to your vet, he/she may have some suggestions (behaviour training, coping strategies).

I buried my ancient (14yo) Boxer in Feb 2007, he was the last of a long line of Boxers I raised in the US (I live in the UK now) as a breeder. I also did breed rescue - usually dogs the age your Boxer was when he came to live with you, I met through breed rescue needed rehoming to families/persons with the willingness and understanding (the probability the behaviours may never resolve) to cope with the separation anxiety behaviours in the way I outlined above.

Best luck, from the photo it's clear your Boxer is much loved and I wish you both the best coping with something he truly doesn't want to do but can't help doing when you leave the house even for a short time. If you can afford a dog-sitter and/or 'doggie day care', these dogs respond very well to either.