vision 

A breeding program, like building a business or achieving any personal goal, must begin with a vision that is both aspirational and achievable. The vision provides the broader context, an overview, and a purpose for the goal under development.

Our overarching vision is to maintain and improve the value found in this extraordinary breed, and to share it with others, in various forms. To achieve that vision, we have encapsulated the following points of philosophy as the guideposts for our Boerboel breeding program.

PRESERVATION

We are preservation breeders of Boerboels. Preservation breeding is an attempt to preserve the bloodlines and rare pedigrees within a breed - the essential, defining genetics and traits that make the breed what it is.

The Boerboel is a landrace breed with origins in South Africa, where its history goes back hundreds of years. Its recognition as a breed with a standard only took place in 1983, which is extraordinarily recent for a dog breed. This dichotomy makes the Boerboel paradoxically both a very old and a very young dog breed. Each side of this equation brings with it richness, complexities, and difficulties.

At its core, the need to preserve the Boerboel relates not just to its singular and impressive physical appearance. Preservation breeding must also retain all the the Boerboel’s innate landrace qualities: its incredible sense of discernment and intelligence, its natural guarding and protection instincts, its dedication to family, its calm demeanor around livestock and animals, its good nature with children, and so much more.

Too many modern dogs have been divorced from their working instincts through decades or centuries of breeding for exaggerated aesthetics. The qualities that the Boerboel possesses could not have occurred as a result of any amount of artificial selection. As breeders, we need to be vigilant to ensure in future that the breed does not become Boerboel in appearance only.

We are using some of the best known and oldest lines in the Boerboel breed. A focus on ancestry that was truest to the original Boerboel breed allows us to produce the next generation of Boerboels with a balance of health, stable temperament, functionality, and Boerboel type.

HEALTH

Health testing is a pillar of preservation breeding. But we feel its importance cannot be emphasized enough, and again want to underscore our dedication to an extensive health-testing program.

Regular and extensive health-testing practices are not common in this breed. Certainly health testing is nowhere near as pervasive as it should be, and as extensive as is often seen in more established and popular breeds. We are working to change this oversight, through our own efforts, education, and evangelization.

Health testing is at the heart of our program. We only allow healthy, qualified dogs to become a part of our breeding program. We only work with other breeders who put an honest emphasis on health testing. We also openly share our health-testing data not just with prospective puppy owners, but openly publish the results on our website.

matchmaking

We work hard to get to know our prospective families to ensure that the right puppies go to the right homes.

This process begins with a phone interview to ask and answer questions, and get to know each other. We want you to feel comfortable and confident in your decision to choose us as the breeder of your next family member.

Once we get to know you, it makes it easy to match each puppy's strengths with the needs of the family. We have owned dogs our entire lives, and have more than 10 years’ professional experience training and breeding dogs.

A good breeder recognizes there is a spectrum of personalities within a litter, and works hand in hand with the family to match the puppy's natural traits with the needs of each home. We use our experience to assess the puppies starting at birth, and typically by seven weeks of age we have the data needed to confidently determine placements with families.

PUPPY development

We have seen puppies raised under a range conditions, spanning the extremes from isolation to the very best in socialization and support. Definitively, the way your puppy is raised from birth until the time you pick it up will determine the outcomes of the dog for life, and your relationship with it.

In our opinion, not properly raising a puppy creates a deficit in the dog that can never be fully overcome. That statement is not to say that dogs cannot improve with rehabilitation. It is to emphasize that you get only one chance to optimally set up the puppy for best outcomes in its life and with its family.

We start early neurological stimulation with the puppies at three days of age. It is important for us to imprint on the puppies and spend lots of time getting to know each one individually, so we can match them correctly. The puppy's temperament assessment culminates with an aptitude test at seven weeks of age.

Our puppies are vet-checked, wormed, vaccinated, micro-chipped, temperament-tested, and extensively socialized before they go to their new homes. We introduce the puppies to farm animals, other dogs, cats, children, and new people. We go for rides in the car. The puppies are exposed to equipment and noises on the farm. We start practicing potty training outside. During all these activities and training, we are also focusing our time and energy communicating with the puppy owners and preparing them prior to puppy pick-up.

The socialization and development of a puppy is a time-consuming and resource-intensive effort. We take this responsibility seriously and understand the fundamental difference it makes in our program.

lifetime support

We are here as a resource for the life of the dog. Every breed is unique, and often breeders are the only individuals with true, deep insights into behavior, health issues, training, temperament, quirks, and so many other facets of the breed and the dogs they produce. This fact is true of any breed. But several aspects of the Boerboel are unique, and will make your relationship with a breeder a more fundamental part of your success.

The Boerboel is a rare breed and finding accurate, in-depth information about it online or in books is virtually impossible. The internet is littered with apocryphal stories about their status as “lion killers” and other nonsense, most of which is regurgitated across the web where it continues to morph and distort at every telling. Culturally, the Boerboel belongs to South Africa, especially to the individuals who grew up with Boerboels on farms, and for whom breeding is a multi-generational heritage activity. The South Africans probably understand this working dog in a way that even the best of us breeders in the United States do not. We believe it is fair to say that there are only a handful of breeders in the United States that have any knowledge of this breed approaching the depths known in its cultural homeland. We do not claim to know everything, but we are committed to a process of relentless improvement in understanding and breeding the Boerboel, and sharing our knowledge with anyone passionate about the breed.

Its status as a guardian breed and the characteristics that distinguish it from other guardian breeds are also worth noting. A guardian breed is not for everyone. It is not a first-time-dog-owner dog. It is not for owners who do not take charge and show authority. A properly bred Boerboel is a stable, confident dog. But it is a dog that requires leadership and discipline. You must show lifetime commitment to the dog. Boerboels can sometimes be challenging, especially as they develop and go through hormonal growth spurts. Sometimes the dogs will challenge your authority. Developing the skills to manage a large guardian breed are essential to your success and we are here to support you.