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How to Choose A Boxer Dog That Is Right for Your Family
Once you make the decision that a boxer is the right breed for you and your family, it's time to decide where to get your boxer and how to choose the boxer dog that is right for you. Keep reading for some tips.
Where to Get Your Boxer
An easier and more pleasant journey with your chosen boxer starts with checking out the parent dogs for unbecoming traits like aggression, hyperactivity and extreme shyness.
This is easier to do when you get your boxer from a reputable breeder or from a pet shop that gets their animals only from known breeders. Exercise prudence if you are getting your boxer puppy from pet stores, which often get their supply from breeders of unknown reputation.
These "puppy mills" are not known to put much emphasis on the quality and health of pups they are producing. Reputable breeders adhere to the accepted standards for boxers in terms of uniformity in the breed, good health, temperament, size and color.
Reputable breeders will also be able to show the pedigree and registration papers and/or pictures of the parent dogs that may reside somewhere else. Professional breeders are also there to produce dog show champions or prospects.
Even if you are not looking to raise a show boxer, known breeders can provide you with some "best buy" puppies because not all the puppies in a litter are show prospect/champion materials.
But the full litter would have had benefited from the same proven bloodlines, nutrition and medical care. So you can choose from among the good-looking brothers or sisters of a potential champion for a bargain.
Your other source option is animal shelters. In the US alone, animal shelters receive up to 12 million homeless dogs and cats every year, and about 25% of them are purebred. Paying the adoption fee is a lot cheaper than the price you will pay to a breeder or pet store, AND you will be saving a life.
Know How to Choose a Boxer Dog That Is Right for You
The definition of good stock or purebred must include beauty, and in a boxer, good-looking means the coat is fawn or brindle, with the white markings or "flash" covering not more than one-third of the entire coat.
Sometimes the distribution of the "flash" alone may make the difference between a show champion and just a pet boxer. Our Lucy had a bit more white than is considered desirable, but she was a striking dog, and everywhere we went, people commented on her beauty.
The all-white boxer or "check" is prone to blindness and deafness, and the American Boxer Club members are not to register, sell or use the "whites" for breeding.
When it comes to choosing male or female boxers, there are not many clear-cut differences in their personalities. At times, the male is calmer, more tolerant of other dogs, willing to hold still for those hugs than the female.
But at other times, the female can be so. One owner said the female boxer is more hyperactive and aggressive especially toward other females, and that the aggression has increased as the female gets older.