Too much of a good thing?

Crate training is a wonderful idea. She hops right in her crate every night and snuggles up with her blanket like a good girl that she is. However, lately she has been volunteering to spend all day in her crate! We bought this house and large yard pretty much for our big dog! It is cute to find her in there with the door open, but girlfriend go play! Perhaps it is partially due to the fact that every time the baby is on the floor she wants to lay by him and at some point he wants to grab whatever he can and twist. Africa, we are sorry for the baby abuse, but come out! We miss you!

The evidence doesn't lie.....

...you have been up to no good! Dirt on the nose?




Oh thank you for digging up around our sprinkler head. We just bought a foreclosed home and are trying to get it back in shape. We sure appreciate your help in digging up the new lawn.






I suppose you are not aware that you have a piece of paper hanging from your lovely lips. I sure hope that is not the important credit card information I left on the table.

Oh bonus! You dragged it outside to devour it. A muddy torn up document is always better than your usual dry shreds you leave around the house. I think I will go clean that up while you chew on your squeaky toy outside the baby's room during his nap. We sure do love you though!

On a happy note, when I am smart enough to observe her daily chores more closely, the "leave it" and "drop it" command work beautifully. They are starting to pay off. I love that when I do catch her with something terrible in her mouth I can say "drop it" and she immediately gets it out of her mouth. It is best when I use the "leave it" command meaning I catch her before the dirty deed and we avoid the above disasters. What is that saying ? "there are no bad horses, just lousy riders"...something like that. I will get better dearest Africa.

She Rests

After telling Africa to "go to bed" a thousand and times and rewarding her with a treat every time, she has finally started to go to her bed on her own. I really appreciate this because she already takes up a lot of space on my floor.I like her to be in her corner out of the way. She is only 4 months old and is 35 pounds. She is more than twice the weight of our son who is also a big boy and was born at the same time. She amazes us!

Boerboels and furniture

Boerboel puppies are so cute and cuddly. It is always tempting for puppy owners to invite puppies to sleep in the bed at night or up on the couch while watching t.v. If we don't do anything right with our training as long as we keep her off of our furniture no matter how cute she is, that is pretty good. When she is 150 pounds plus our efforts to keep her off our furniture will of paid off big time. Even if you let your boerboel get on the couch once, she will never forget and you will find yourself fighting that forever. Here we have Josh getting down on her level. It may seem annoying to have to get on the floor to cuddle with your dog, but I would recommend it for the future of your bed and couch.

Puppies = destruction

I realize it is not a a Newsflash that puppies like to destroy things. Africa likes to take big things and turn into several little things. The best kind of toys for dogs are the things that are not meant to be toys for dogs. We buy Africa lots of toys and she is mildly amused for a day and then she hunts for things left around that are not meant for her to play with. I think it would be a good idea to not buy lots of toys for your dog at once, but rather to space them out. Introducing a new day every so often is a better idea then several toys at once.

Enjoy your puppy!

Our breeder said: "make sure you enjoy your puppy while you can because they grow fast". With Boerboels this is especially true. Africa is growing very fast. It is very important to teach your tricks and command words now. They may seem like they are not listening or learning, but they are. I can tell with Africa that she is becoming more obedient each day as long as I am consistent with the words and training. We review the tricks we want her to learn rewarding with a treat every time she does something right. This will definitely pay off when she is older and much bigger. We also believe that exercise is key for a good dog. We can't take her too far, but short walks make her much more obedient and calm

Crate Training

Crate training is a bit tedious, but definitely worth it. We learned with Tonka after 3 long nights of barking that he would do better in another room where he couldn't see us. With Africa, we learned after a long week of barking in another room that she would do better in our room with us in the crate. She has the peronality that she wants to be around us all of the time. I did have to put a blanket over the front so she couldn't see us get up and want out all through the night. After a week or so of lots of barking she has become quite comfortable in her crate. Everytime we want her to go in her crate we say "in your crate" and once she steps in we give her a treat. After a few weeks of this I can say "in your crate" without a visible treat and she well step in. This makes it easy to leave the house at anytime and not worry about the house being chewed up while we are not watching. It becomes a place for her to wind down and take a break from us as well. I do have to take her out in the middle of the night, but that becomes less and less. Dogs try their hardest to not have accidents in their crate. This is also a bonus with a crate. It definitely pays off. Also when we go on trips we can just take the crate and know that she feels comfortable even in a different place.

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Leash Training

Here we have Africa learning the leash. This is a bit of a challenge. When there is tension on the leash she immediately sits down and does not want to go anywhere. So we connect the leash to her and just let her walk around for an hour or so a day with it just dragging around. We don't pick it up or pull on it so she can get comfortable with it. She is becoming more comfortable each day. Eventually we will try walking again.

Pet Door

A pet door makes housebreaking so easy. It was a trick at first to get Africa comfortable going through the door. It helps to have a pet door larger than our house. In our case we could crawl in and out through the door and give her a treat if she followed. Eventually she became comfortable enough to go in and out herself. If you are crate training like we are, you may also be able to put the crate up to the doggy door at night and then your puppy can go in and out only through the dog door and that will reinforce where the defecating takes place. This worked brilliant for Africa until she somehow was able to push the crate away from the door and escape into the house.

Start With Potty Training

The very first thing any puppy needs to learn is housebreaking. Of course there will be accidents, but if there is constant observation the amount of accidents will be reduced. When a puppy walks around slowly with their nose close to the floor it is a good indication they are about to pee or poop. You should start by constantly taking or inviting the dog outside. This will help them learn quickly that there is an outside for relieving. As soon as any relieving is done praise the dog and give her a treat.  Africa seemed to learn this pretty quickly. We just kept putting her outside in hopes that she had to go and every time she went we would immediately give her a treat. When we weren't watching like she would and found her crouching to go in the house we immediately swapped her bottom and carried her outside. Again when she went outside we gave her lots of praise. If you miss the accident it doesn't do any good to get after the dog. They don't remember which is why you have to catch them in the act or just clean it up and hope to catch your dog next time. We figured out that Africa would get lazy and sleepy after a nap and we had to guide her or take her outside otherwise she would tend to have an accident. 

Bringing Africa Home

The first day is always exciting. Africa was about 8 weeks old when we brought her home and immediately set off to get to new her new territory. Her moments of exploration were brief as she was still young enough to want lots of naps. The sleeping is my favorite part, but it is so brief. She seemed so innocent and lethargic. The breeder said to enjoy this cute small size as much as possible because they sure do grow fast.