Boxer Dog Origins
This beautiful dog, the Boxer. The best companion dog of all time without a doubt. Well, I have had nothing but Boxers all my life, so I have to admit my opinion will be a little partial. I can tell may stories of the joy those boxers have given me through my life. They can always put a smile on your face. I’m not sure if it is the fleshy jowled pug nosed face that I find so wonderful, or there personality, disposition,or more likely it is all of the above. Boxers are so playful in the way they are prepared to play in a second with a piece of rope or run around the grass. Attentive because they have to be with you everywhere you go, because that is where the action will be and they need to be part of it. Affectionate, they crave physical contact and petting. they love climbing into your bed with you at night and are a great heat source on a cold night. Loyal in that they are friendly and personable, but will jump to defend you quickly with a tenacious presence. Boxers are obedient and gentle, they are very tolerant of children and babies. You know how children are with the ear pulling and grabbing. That irritates some dogs. Boxers take all of that with no problem unlike any dog I know. Simply the best family dog imaginable.
where did this breed originate? How did the boxer we know and love today come to be? It was a cross between a couple different dogs, but I wanted to look into its geneaology and see for sure. This is what I came up with.
The name Boxer is commonly thought to originate from the way that a boxer plays. they rear back on its hind legs and comes at you with its paws swinging, sort of like a pugilist. You have to be careful, because they can land a couple arm scraping punches quickly, thus the need for a well trained Boxer. However this explanation is wrong. Actually, the name “Boxer” is taken from an ancestor, the smaller BullenBeisser (Barbanter) that were called “boxel”. The name “Boxer” is a corruption of that name that has passed through time.
The boxer started out as a cross between the German Bullenbeisser and the English Bulldog. The German Bullenbeisser was a large sized hunting dog for hundreds of years. It was commonly used as a hunting dog for large game like deer, bear and wild pigs. Its primary purpose was to track down wounded prey and subdue it until the hunters came.
A common feature of many boxers is the snipped pointed ears. Done these days just for show, but it actually had a practical purpose related to their use as hunting dogs. When tracking and holding wild animals, the dogs would often suffer badly torn ears. cropping their ears was started to avoid this problem.As time passed, dogs of smaller stature became more favorable and the German Bullenbeisser was purposefully bred smaller and smaller. The smaller version of the German Bullenbeisser was then named the Bullenbeisser(Brabanter).
In the late 19th century, the Brabanter was bred again with the English Bulldog. This was the starting point for what would become today’s Boxer. in 1894, the breed was stabilized and exhibited in 1895.
The story of the dogs that took part in the early genealogy is rather interesting. An true tale of breeding and selection.
A gentleman from Munich Germany, George Alt crossed a brindle-colored bitch Brabanter called “Flora” with a local dog of unknown ancestry named “Boxer”. This resulted in a fawn and white pup they named “Lechners Boxer”. When Lechners Boxer matured, “Lechner’s Boxer” was mated with his mother “Flora” and one of the litter was a bitch called “Alt’s Schecken”. “Alt’s Schecken was registered as a Bierboxer or Modern BullBeiser. “Alt’s Schecken” was then bred with a English Bulldog named “Tom” that produced a puppy named “Flocki”, the first boxer entered into the German Stud Book. “Flocki’s” sister, the white “Blanka von Angertor” was then bred with the grandson of “Lechners Boxer”, “Piccolo von Angertor” to create “Meta von der Passage”. It is “Meta Von Der Passage” that would have the biggest impact on the boxer breed. She is the mother of the modern breed of Boxer. “Meta von der Passage” went on to give birth to a line of sires that defined the future of the Boxer to the current day.