Friendship between a boxer and puppy pitbull

Question

I am worried about the relationship between my 4 year old boxer dog and my new pitbull puppy (3 months), which I buy today, because when I take my pitbull puppy to my apartment, my boxer kept looking at him and started to bark a lot, then separate them, tie the boxer to a tube and thus could do nothing to the puppy (I was terrified that my boxer could hurt her).

The boxer has always been too aggressive with the puppies, he still sees them and wants to beat them.. I really do not know how I could make them friends, my boxer and my little pit bull.

Could there be a good relationship between them?

What can I do?

Answer 1

I think the answer Layna gave you would be the easiest and maybe the preferable way. But sometimes it is not possible to give back the puppy. So for this case, you have two options:

1. Separate them forever or until you can sell the puppy.
2. Separate them until your training with your boxer is so successful that you can stop him biting without a leash and without intervening physically.

The separation is recommended, because every attack from your boxer has some psychological impact to your puppy. In the worst case he will start to bite every other dog when he is older or have at least the same problem with puppies.

In case you want to train your boxer, keep in mind that looking for a good dog trainer is not a shame, but highly recommended in a situation like yours. Look for someone who can teach you in person. Tips given on the Internet can never be so specially geared to you and your dog, because we have never seen you for real.

How to train:

1. Train commands like "come" and "sit" in every situation. Start with small steps at home and increase the external stimuli. You have to be able to have your boxer under control in any situation.

2. Start to bring your boxer and the puppy together. Stay always calm. Call your boxer to sit next to you when you notice that he is aggressive, but before he starts to attack the puppy. Start with just a few minutes' training time and increase the time they are together slowly.

3. If you keep both dogs, take care to give both the same attention. Play with both and train with both.

Having two dogs is always hard. The effort you have to spend for training is more than doubled, because dogs tend to adopt bad behavour of the other, so the owner will always have more trouble to train each of them. But well trained dogs in a pack are really nice. So think about it. Can you give your dogs these kind of intensive time and training until the problem with your boxer is solved and afterwards?

It will be a hard and long way, if you keep the puppy. But even if you decide to give the puppy away, you should train with your boxer.

Answer 2

Moving this out of my comment, because the more I think about it, the more scary the scenario sounds.
Don't get another puppy yet, least of all a physically strong one like a pitbull. If you can still pull out of buying him, do so now.
Next: train your boxer to obey WITHOUT a leash. You already have a physically strong dog you don't have fully under control, that shows aggression towards other dogs! Get a dog-trainer, or some books, whatever helps you most, and make sure you can reliably control your boxer. By that, I mean when he is off-leash, and you call him, he comes back to you.
THEN you can add a puppy.
I am sorry, but the sheer physical strength of your dogs will require this, no matter what kind of collar or leash you have! If a dog this size is determined, he'll drag you along behind him, drag the leash out of your hand, or force you to use a collar-type that will actually hurt the dog and increase aggression.

Please, PLEASE reconsider the idea about the puppy...