Boxer
How many positive feelings have this word, since I know this breed!
I don’t wanna talk you about breed standard, cause you can read about on FCI website. But I wanna say something about character of these dogs, how they are on a daily basis. These are really important information for all people who want spend nearly fifteen years with boxer.
Character
The truth is that the boxer have clown personality. It’s always happy, positive and ready for play. Fortunately, boxer is lazy in home and mainly protects the most comfortable couch. Boxer is lazy… yeah, but ONLY if you make him tired outside, for example by frisbee.
The characteristic features of the breed is high excitability and spontaneity. Especially young boxers, less than 2 years of age, even are hyperactiv. You have to keep this in mind if you plan your life with boxer.
However, I’ll add that the boxer doesn’t require high activity of his owner. 🙂
15 minutes of running for a dog frisbee is enough to unload your dog of his morning dose of energy. No condition “like a husky” is results of specific morphology of the body – short body corpus causes a lower efficiency of the diaphragm, in turn brachycephalic skull, with characteristic short muzzle causes very poor ventilation of the body (remeber that a canine have sweat glands only on padded paws and tongue!). As a result, the boxer dog is spontaneous, very strong (25kg bitch can tug you on the leash like 60kg cane corso italiano!), but in the end with weak condition. This is “minus” in term of sports utility, but it’s a “plus” for most people who dream about the dog, but don’t have whole day for discharging excess energy in its.
Duality of nature
Boxer is a dog very effusive in their feelings. Unfortunately this dog not really know how strong he is. Often I explain behavior of my boxer girl that she thinks she is 2kg yorkie, not 25kg boxer and that’s why she wanna be wear on the hands of my friends. However this duality of nature: outdoor – sportsman and indoor – decoration of our couch, makes the boxer the most perfect dog in whole world for the Average Joe. 🙂
Boxer knows when you coming to the door to go for a walk and in express time he passes a real transformation! I love this breed, both because he jumps like a jaguar behind frisbee, and also because he can lie quietly under my feet when I work on the computer.
Boxer & Baby
Often called “nany dog” – indeed, the boxer is a real nanny for human children. He’s very tolerant, so that sometimes you have to protect him from too insistence kids, because he doesn’t respond even at nagging taunts on their part. However boxer can be good as a childrens companion when he will sort out in his head and his temper a little subsided – this means boxer older than one year.
So in my opinion boxer for children – YES! Provided that we will keep an eye on and watch that neither the child didn’t do harm our tolerant boxer, nor boxer didn’t trampled our child when he will jump in euphoria… .
Also for other dogs boxer is tolerant and ready to play in every time.
Although there are exceptions some times … .
Utility – IPO
Always when we think about the nature of the breed, we should look back, and consider for what purpose it was bred. Officially, it’s a breed which was created as a result of crosses Brabanter Bullenbeisser (continental hunting dog for wild boars, in the molosser type), with very similar in appearance (at that time) English Bulldogs. Nowadays utility of this breed are defense sports – IPO (Internationale Prufungsordnung, an international dog sport, also known as Schutzhund)
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Although this utility has nothing to do with the original work bullenbeisser – hunting, however, this is a way for the utilization of large spontaneity of boxer. In addition to the defense and olfactory work IPO is a obedience – maybe not so spectacular like both of the above elements of this sport, but the most important for sure. Neglect obedience can result in a very dangerous behavioral problems with our dog, if we train with him focusing only on defense. IPO was introduced for the boxer early enough to today’s boxers have a good contact with the guide and be susceptibility to training.
Therefore, if you considering purchase boxer and you wondering if it will be a dog who focusing his attention on the owner, seeking contact with him (looking deep in your eyes 🙂 ), I boldly say – YES, Boxer is right decision!
Health
Another extremely important aspect in considering the choice of dog breed, is his health. It’s not a myth, that mongrel is healthier than purebred dog. Of course the “healthier” doesn’t mean less susceptible to infectious diseases. Mongrels have most of all a rich genotype, so that the probability of disclosure genetic diseases is much lower than in the case of purebred dogs. Higher inbreed index in result give a higher probability of disclosure genetic diseases. Partially we can prevent this by testing health of boxers. However, usually “health test” is not mean a DNA test. It’s just detecting any disposition to the disease.
The most popular health tests for boxers in Poland are:
-x-ray of elbow joint – elbow dysplasia (ED) with possible test scores: 0,1,2,3
-x-ray of hip joint – hip dysplasia (HD)
-x-ray of spine – Spondylosis – degeneration of the intervertebral disks with the scale of assessments 0,1,2,3. Grade 0 – it mean below 3 places pathologically changed. According to some radiologists no boxers without any pathological changes of the spine, it is different only their severity.
-cardiovascular examination – heart defects (HZ) – with possible test scores: 0,1,2,3. Grade 0 – free of heart murmurs, 1- minor murmur, 2- loud murmur;
Those animals which are free of heart murmurs (grade 0) may be considered free of Aortic and Pulmonic Stenosis, and are suitable for breeding purposes. Those animals which have a minor murmur (grade 1) may be accepted as normal and are suitable for breeding. Bitches who are scored over a 1, therefore as a grade 2, are considered acceptable as brood bitches provided they are mated to a clear dog – with score 0. Dogs with murmurs of a grade 2 or louder, should not be used as stud dogs.
Boxer on a daily
It should be remembered that the boxer, who is one of the biggest brachycephalic breed with his short muzzle has a very poor thermoregulation of the body. Therefore, it is highly exposed to sunstroke and overheating. Thus, you should take care of this and your boxer shouldn’t sunning too long in the garden in the hot weather.
Due to the short hair and no undercoat, boxer doesn’t require special grooming. The only requirement is regular hygiene of the head, ie. regular cleaning of the eyes and folds around the muzzle (and those under the jaw) with a cotton swab . You should also regular clean the ears and shortening claws.
That’s all! The rest of your free time you can spend on playing with boxer in the garden or relaxing throwing dogfrisbee in the park. 🙂
