Boxer

The Boxer is a medium-to-large, short-haired dog of mastiff type, originating in Germany. Its ancestors are the Old English Bulldog and the now-extinct Bullenbeisser, which disappeared through crossbreeding rather than decline. The breed belongs to the Working Group of both The Kennel Club and the American Kennel Club (AKC). The first Boxer club formed in 1895, and the dogs debuted in a Munich dog show for St. Bernards the following year. In 2013, AKC statistics ranked the Boxer as the seventh-most popular breed in the United States for the fourth year running, though the AKC’s website later placed it at eleventh.

The head is the breed’s most notable feature. According to the standard, it must be in perfect proportion to the body and never too light, with the muzzle’s form and proportion to the skull given the highest importance. The muzzle-to-head length ratio is 1:3. Folds run from the nose root downward on both sides of the muzzle, and the nose tip sits slightly higher than the muzzle root. The lower jaw should protrude beyond the upper jaw and curve slightly upward, creating an underbite or “undershot bite.” Boxers were originally docked and cropped, and this practice continues in some countries. However, pressure from veterinary associations, animal rights groups, and the public has led to bans on ear cropping and tail docking in several nations, and The Kennel Club (UK) does not recognize these alterations in its standard. The AKC still permits cropped ears. In the UK, a line of naturally short-tailed (bobtail) Boxers was developed in anticipation of a docking ban; after generations of controlled breeding, these dogs were accepted into the Kennel Club (UK) registry in 1998, and bobtail Boxers now exist in many countries. In 2008, the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI) made a naturally stumpy tail a disqualifying fault, meaning bobtail Boxers cannot be shown in FCI member countries. In the United States and Canada as of 2012, cropped ears remain more common in show dogs, though the American Veterinary Medical Association opposes cosmetic cropping. In March 2005, the AKC breed standard was updated to include a description of the uncropped ear but to severely penalize an undocked tail. Docking is typically done at 3–5 days old, before cartilage fully forms, without sutures or anesthesia. The Kennel Club (UK) standard does not permit tail docking.

The Boxer has a short, smooth coat that lies tight to the body. Recognized colors are fawn and brindle, often with white on the underbelly and feet. These white markings, called “flash,” may extend onto the neck or face; dogs with such markings are termed “flashy.” Fawn covers a range from light tan or yellow to reddish tan, mahogany, stag/deer red, and dark honey-blonde. In the UK and Europe, fawn Boxers are often rich in color and called “red.” Brindle means black stripes on a fawn background. Some brindle Boxers are so heavily striped they appear to have fawn stripes on a black body—these are called “reverse brindles,” though this is a misnomer; they are still fawn dogs with black stripes. The breed standard requires the fawn background to clearly contrast with or show through the brindling. The Boxer does not carry the gene for a solid black coat, so purebred black Boxers do not exist. Dogs that appear black are heavily brindled, with the fawn color completely obscured by black striping; these are often called “sealed” Boxers and are not an AKC-recognized color.

White Boxers—those with white markings covering more than one-third of the coat—are neither albino nor rare; about 20–25% of all Boxers born are white. Genetically, they are fawn or brindle with excessive white markings over the base color. Like fair-skinned humans, white Boxers have a higher risk of sunburn and related skin cancers. The extreme piebald gene responsible for white markings is linked to congenital sensorineural deafness in dogs. An estimated 18% of white Boxers are deaf in one or both ears, though rescue organizations report about double that figure. In the past, breeders often euthanized white puppies at birth. A 1998 study in the Netherlands found that 17% of Boxer pups were euthanized because they were white. The American Boxer Club once “unofficially recommended euthanasia for these animals,” citing reasons such as the view that selling a dog with faults is unethical—a stark contrast to the AKC’s preference for docked tails—and the perception that white Boxers are more likely to end up in rescues.