Importing My First South African Boerboel Baden Pluto

I became aware of Boerboel’s through the now-defunct website molosserworld.com. Back in 1998, molosser world was a collection of mastiffs from all over the world. Their breed descriptions were accompanied by pictures. Most of the breeds on Molosserworld represented landrace mastiffs relative to the ancient dogs of war from different regions of the world. I was a frequent visitor to the site and became familiar with all the molosser breeds.

The Boerboel was the South Africans version of the molosser dog. The Boerboel was said to be the one of most athletic of the molossers of its size. I was impressed by the resemblance to my childhood favorite American Bulldog. Just like the American Bulldog the Boerboel had muscle. However, the Boerboels are much larger. Some had chiseled muscling physiques similar to conditioned draft horses. I dreamed of owning this type of dog and knew I would one day have mine.

As a boy, I was told when I became a man I would be able to have as many dogs as I wanted. Soon as I had saved up enough money I bought my own house and first dog. My first dog as a man on my own was the Italian Molosser also known as the Italian Cane Corso. Her name was Color and she is in this video with my oldest daughter. The Boerboels came after we decided that owning a male Cane Corso would be too much of a liability. Therefore we decided to import a South African Boerboel.

After a long period of research, I found a breeder who I knew could be trusted as he was a lawyer. It made me feel more comfortable sending my money overseas to a lawyer. Attie Badenhusrt was his name and he bred Boerboels out of the love for the breed. Attie was a passionate and dedicated breeder. He sought out the best boerboels and put together a very informative website that is still in existence today. Atties Boerboels had multiple generations of high marks for health. Health and temperament were our priorities.

After 10 months of waiting and looking at Baden Boerboels Everyday Pluto finally arrived. HE was the most impressive pup I witnessed. I was overwhelmed with bliss. I admit it was one of the happiest days of my life. Pluto exceeded all of my expectations he was beautiful. I continued my research and found out about message boards like the yellow board and the yahoo boerboel group the year was 2007 and before Facebook, all we had were special interest message boards.

People shot me down hard on the boards fueling my passion even further. I used the negative feedback as motivation. My next boerboel was very carefully selected. An import direct from the Dopper kennel a granddaughter to the world-famous only perfect scored Boerboel in the history of the breed Corma Buks and daughter of Roenard Harry the full Brother of Roenard Martiens. My bloodlines were stellar and I knew it. I pressed forward determined to prove my dog’s value. My goal was to have a picture of the most muscled-up athletic Boerboel in the USA.

Not only did I want to prove myself as having what it took to be successful at breeding Boerboels I also wanted to prove Pluto’s value as a breeding dog. I went to special Boerboel events also known as the appraisal for evaluation by Boerboel experts. I prepared for weeks to show the boy off. We would have to drive all the way to Buffalo for the venue.

After our dog was scored we received a medal. I knew we worked hard and the medal was a symbol of our accomplishment. But to my surprise, they wanted to score the host dog. PLuto big brother. The host offered to take the appraiser to dinner for steak. After overhearing this conversation I knew the fix was in. I told my comrade its time to go. We left with our medal.

Now back at home I was elated my dog was approved for breeding and had the high score of the day. I began my quest to acquire a female. Ont the message boards I asked questions about line breeding or outcrossing with Boerboels. My concern was Boerboels being a new breed with a small foundation gene pool was that genetic bottleneck leading to inbreeding depression. Should line-breeding be practiced is a great question for the novice breeder. Many breeders swear by inbreeding dogs to lock in type. This old-school thought process leads to locking in good traits that are desires as well as some defective traits that are associated with health risks. And without any way to quantify breeding value virtually eliminates your ability to cull the curs and breed from proven stock.

To my surprise, the South African Boerboel Breeding Community seems more concerned with my dog’s appraisal score and nothing else. No one wanted to entertain this conversation. From the days that I went to biology class, I know that survival of the fittest is a sure way to breed healthy stock