availability status

LAST UPDATED: March 2026

As someone who has built websites for years, I used to be critical of breeders who had outdated websites. But after almost 10 years of breeding, I have newfound empathy for the impossibility of maintaining a serious breeding program and maintaining a website that reflects the current state of the program and the availability of puppies. Case in point, this is our first update in two years.

We are still breeding and in fact we now have a third generation of Paragon Boerboels, with plans unfolding for litters that will produce our fourth generation of dogs.

Most of the dogs currently on this website reflect our foundation dogs, many of which we imported from South Africa. The idea of redoing the website and sharing all of our subsequent generations of dogs is in some ways an exciting one. But one of the reasons we have not done so is due to fundamental changes we have decided to make to our program.

After a year or two of leaning towards this change, we have finally decided to formalize it here on the website.

Moving forward, we are no longer selling dogs to the general public.

Will this change in the future? Maybe? But it doesn’t seem probable.

Given all the experiences and lessons we have learned in the past 10 years breeding and 15 years involved with the breed, we think it is the best decision for us, our program, and above all the dogs.

We began this program with a sincere desire to act as preservation breeders and above all that has guided all our efforts and decisions. We wanted this breed in our lives, and to also provide others with the opportunity to experience the uniqueness of the Boerboel in their daily lives as members of their familes. We wanted to produce more than just the caricature of the breed that most people never get beyond, the concept of the breed that you see in pretty much every terrible and superficial breed description or overview online.

We accomplished that goal and more, and it has been extremely rewarding to match the right puppies with the right homes. But all of this work comes with an indescribable amount of sacrifice and pain, too.

We accomplished other goals we set for ourselves, as well. We were deeply involved in AKC show ring for about four years. This effort culminated in one of our second-generations males winning Best of Breed at the Westminster Dog Show in 2024 in breeder, owner, and handler classes. While we considered it an achievement and an honor, the fact that we never even published it on our website or anywhere tells you the stock we put into it in our greater set of priorities and values.

In the end, between the tragedies that come with breeding, registry politics, the superficiality of the AKC show world, people not understanding value but instead impulse shopping when it comes to acquiring puppies, the ethos in the Boerboel community as a whole, and a number of other similar factors, we decided that all of these variables were in the end things that we did not want in our lives, and were a huge deviation from what we set out to do for ourselves and the dogs.

We are in fact still producing litters of puppies. But in the future, we will only be offering the dogs to a select group of people.

This will include primarily family and friends, or contacts made through first-hand introductions and references. This helps us ensure the dogs go to the best homes possible.

Our other criteria, that goes hand in hand with that first group of potential owners, will be placement of dogs in homes where we can later access them for breeding in some form.

Finally, no breeder is an island, and we hope to maintain and continue developing relationships with select Boerboel breeders, who align with our preservation breeding goals and standards of quality.

Hopefully, at some point, I can find time to publish more information here to further those goals. But in the meantime, we still have enough homes for the dogs we produce, and our lives are very busy otherwise, so there is no urgency.

Nevertheless, if you are looking for the best Boerboel possible, a dog with a focus on temperament, health, and confirmation, and you are truly willing to wait patiently maybe even for a year, and also willing to go through a serious qualification process, you are more than welcome to contact us. We would love to see our dogs in great homes, and this increased selectivity will help us ensure this goal.

Now, our efforts are going to focus more on the breeding program itself and the continued improvement of the breed.

We have also contemplated doing more education about the breed. We truly love sharing knowledge. But finding the right forums and formats that match audiences is challenging, and outcomes are not always commensurate with the effort and investment it requires.

On that last note, if you are someone who would like to see more knowledge, documentation, and content about the Boerboel breed, please contact us and share your experiences. What has it been like for you to try to learn about the breed? In particular, what do you feel is lacking for potential owners or breeders? Firsthand feedback helps guide some of the efforts for the projects we have in mind.

There is so much more to know about this breed. Even after 15 years, we are also still learning and approaching this arc with humility.

What is disturbing about the lack of information on the breed may be better characterized as misinformation. What you find online is largely empty, but more often just wrong. Look no further than the endless flame wars and troll forums on Facebook as one example.

By our estimation, finding a quality Boerboel in the United States right now is somewhere between extraordinarily difficult and impossible. But how would a regular consumer even know what quality is, when the breed has almost no legitimate information and you have never even met one?

As you can see, this last point is a passionate topic for us. Maybe if I hear from the public and even other breeders, it will inspire me to finish some of the books and other projects we have been developing.

Assuming you are here looking for a good Boerboel, I will end on the advice we give everyone:

I don’t care if you buy a dog from us. But work hard to find the best Boerboel possible, for your own sake and the dog’s. Take the time to educate yourself, to the extent possible, and find a knowledgeable breeder who prioritizes temperament,, health, confirmation, and more.

If you do not, you’re setting yourself and the dog up for failure in ways that are ugly and maybe even tragic.


Good luck in your searches and best regards,

Paragon Boerboels