[jnet24]

Sorry I know this might get annoying but I really want to know if this is normal puppy behavior.
We adopted a boxer lab mix 3 years ago. She is very high energy, but a VERY loving dog. She loves anything that comes to the house. She does not jump on people, sleep in bed with us, and we take her for walks, she just has a lot of energy. We have dog sat for the last 8 months and have found our dog Riley has been a lot calmer, so we decided to get another dog. I have always wanted a brindle boxer, and we bought one last week.
It is a nine week old male boxer named Carter. We took him to the vet and it was not our normal one, bc she wasn't in. But this vet said that our puppy seemed very shy and we needed to be careful. And that maybe we should have people give her cookies each time they come to our house. I asked her why she thought this and she said it was because the puppy was calm and would not come to her for a treat. He was not acting scared he just sat there staring at her. He did not run and bury his tail or anything, just didn't come to her. So now she has gotten me kinda nervous.

Carter is a very calm boxer, and reading up on boxer they aren't very calm

. But he will get really excited and run around if you try to play with him or at random times of the day. But alot of times he just lays at your feet. He follows anyone anywhere and get excited to see people. He loves playing with other dogs. Negatively he tried one time to mount my son, which was swiftly corrected. He is just calm.

Do you think him mounting one time, which the vet didn't know about, and his calmness indicate a potential problem? Are some puppies just calmer than others? I ahve never seen him scared at all? Even of my son, who trust me is scary

 

[lifeguard]

A calm boxer - wow! lol

Dogs have different temperaments - it doesn't sound like anything to worry about to me.

 

[thekimballs]

If he came from a good breeder, you should call her and ask her what she thinks. Good breeders know their puppies better than anyone, and can tell you whether this is normal behavior for their puppies and their lines.

If the puppy did not come from a good breeder, you do have more to be worried about, simply because any time breeders aren't keeping temperament very high on the list of things to maintain you can have a major slide in just a few generations. That doesn't mean that this particular puppy isn't just fine; it just means that you don't have the reassurance of predictability.

Puppy temperament tests don't just identify outgoing/shy--there are many more aspects of temperament than that. There are also puppies who are antisocial, dominant, submissive (but not shy), etc. I think that if your puppy didn't cower the vet was probably wrong to call him shy, but she could have been thinking more along the lines of antisocial, which--if it is true, and I haven't a clue without meeting your puppy--also requires intervention/training.

Your puppy is a little older than most who are temperament tested, but I think you may find it helpful to run him through some of the normal tests--if nothing else, they'll reassure you that he's perfectly normal and is just low-key.

http://www.volhard.com/pages/pat.php is the classic test; I do it on my puppies.

Carol Lea Benjamin has one in her book Chosen Dog; Suzanne Clothier wrote one, and there are many others that you can find. If you read through one or more, you can get an idea of what kinds of qualities of temperament some experienced trainers and behaviorists have connected to good outcomes or more difficult outcomes.