Popular City Dog Breeds: June 2009

Boxers have wonderful expression-filled faces. And they are full of personality, sometimes multiple personalities. They are happy to see us when we come home and sad when we leave. We are all susceptible to assigning human traits to our pets (anthropomorphizing to use a big word). It’s really hard to remember sometimes that they’re just dogs. I think with the Boxer it can be downright impossible to not think there’s some kind of human thought activity going on behind those big brown eyes.

I run a Boxer named Buster in the West Village and, on more than one occasion, I’ve come into the apartment to see him on the couch sitting there and watching television. I swear I almost see a smile and hear a chuckle come out of his mouth to go along with the laugh soundtrack from whatever talk show. When he’s on the couch like this, he sometimes looks at me as if to say, “Can you come back later? I’m busy.” But when he sees me standing there in the foyer and realizes I’m not leaving, he hops down from the couch and comes over for his run. Most of the other times when he isn’t engaged in some TV program, Buster is ready to roll, meaning that I hear him panting and stomping around behind the front door before I open it.

He is an exceptional runner on most occasions. In my experience, most Boxers are incredibly fast when they want to be. They will run as fast as you can run with them and, within reason, as far as you want to go. You wouldn’t want to run a marathon with them, of course. But three to five miles on a day when they’re in the mood is no problem at all. I have to be careful, especially on warmer days, that I’m not over-exerting him. And, without saying, carrying water and something to pour it in is definitely a good idea.

I don’t know if this is the case with other Boxers, but Buster seems to be stimulated by other dogs running. If he sees a dog running ahead of him, he will do his best to catch up with that other dog and pass him up. And then he looks up at me to see if I saw what he just did. He really doesn’t care much about walking dogs since he knows they are no challenge. Buster also seems to be stimulated by sports activity. He will run faster in the presence of bouncing balls and people running to make plays. In one section of our run, we pass a succession of tennis courts and then basketball courts. Buster is usually in hyperspeed by the time we have reached the last one.

There are days though when Buster doesn’t want to run very far or very fast. I never force the issue on these days. I try and take those days in stride. I run slower. Let him ease into it. We can’t read our animals’ minds nor can they tell us how they feel. Though with Buster, there have been times when we are running and he just stops and shakes his head no and turns back the other way, toward his home. He’s telling me we’ve gone far enough. On these occasions, I might stop and gently encourage him to go a little bit further. I definitely slow the pace down if we continue. I let him gradually get back into the run, never forcing him into it. And then when we turn back toward his apartment, he wants to take off. Hyperspeed again.

On Halloween, I came to Buster’s apartment to find him with a black cape on. At first, I thought I’m not running this dog with a cape and I started to take it off. But then I decided to leave it on and get over my embarrassment of running a caped dog. So what, you know. Other people were wearing costumes. I think that was one of Buster’s best running days. Not to exaggerate or turn him into a superhero, but he might’ve even flown once or twice.