I love Boerboels but like you I was worried about temperament. I feel like they would be good with immediate family, but what if I wanted to take him to a family party? Cousins, neighbors, running loud kids. My previous dogs have been great. Even Jasper is fantastic in this environment.
But I am not sure they are as adaptable as other breeds. I feel like they are truly a home guardian meant to be on a large piece of property. Im wondering how they are on a normal walk in the park, or a trip to the vets. I understand socialization plays a good part, but the breed is unique imo. I feel like it wouldn’t be as reliable in its training and may go to its “roots” in terms of behavior. If you get what I mean. I could be way off here, and I hope I am.
But goodness, they are everything I envision when I think BIG dog. They don’t have that smushed muzzle like some other breeds. Love their giant heads.
I am guessing the breeder was Black Iron Boerboels. You don't have to confirm, but I wasn’t able to reach them either when I was searching for one.
Check out Elite Boerboels. I didn’t do too much research on them yet, but I think a couple of the males really caught my eye on their site. I also thought about importing, but I have never bought a dog over seas. Im worried ill lose all my money in fraud or something haha.
Boy, I so agree with pretty much everything you wrote here! The "agree" button wasn't enough.
I don't know if you've mentioned this before, but do you intend to add a dog while you still have Jasper or are you going to wait until he's passed on? If the former, I can live vicariously through you (or at least let you be guinea pig
)
If a Boerboel would be safe around my immediate family, I would be pretty satisfied with that. Thus far, I have not really had a Dobe that has been good in a scenario like a family party. (1st one nipped kids, 2nd one unpredictably and predictably "attacked" people, current one jumps on people – at least scratching them).
Going to its "roots:" I think I have the same basic concern as you. Not to step on anyone's toes, but I have a basic concern/suspicion of a lot of bully-type breeds, and some Molosser types. I feel they have what I term "dangerous potential." It may be a different type of danger posed by a Boerboel than by those other breeds, or it may be the same. I'll put it this way: You never hear of a Doberman committing a mauling. On the other hand, what kicked my mind back into considering a Boerboel was a woman sharing on a Mastiff forum recently that she got a Boerboel puppy and she and it just seemed so harmless. I then looked up that breeder's f'bk page and the first thing that appeared was all the customer reviews. These all seemed to be written by normal folks – folks who, frankly, don't strike me as having such experience as I do, and my sort of hardness and determination around large dominant working dogs. It kind of seems like this breeder sells pups to non-dog-serious people. I don't hear reviews that tell of maulings
I agree on the everything I want in a BIG dog thing:
Yes, no pushed-in snout. Yes, giant heads. I'd add: thick ol' necks! Sheesh, the power! I love it when I see the thick necks that sort of arch upward toward the head. It's like a whole other area where muscle is packed in.
A few things I don't like are: Unlike Bullmastiffs, Boerboels seem to almost always be higher in the hips than the shoulders. That's unpleasing to me, and if it's accompanied by anything resembling a sway back it's just yuck. Bullmastiffs are a square, short-backed dog like a Dobe.
Boerboel's heads/faces are not always that good looking to me – sort of off, wonky. A good Bullmastiff head/face is awesome (but again, smushed-in muzzle along with the poorer breathing).
I would need the Boerboel tail to be on the shorter end. It tends to stick straight up on the top of the butt back there and just look unattractive. As I mentioned a few days ago, I think I may rather have an intact tail actually; but I know this goes against the standard and is me wanting to have things my way.
I don't get to have cropped ears on a Boerboel. I was looking forward to the gnarly-killer look of the nice short Battle Crop I would get on a Corso.
