To all,

Lynne Berridge sent me this email and asked me to post it in this thread because she had problems joining the forum.

"Hi,
This thread has been cross posted to a Boerboel forum and as suggested I've checked out this thread and just wanted to say that I don't
recognise the dog that is described there, it certainly isn't an accurate description of the Boerboels I live with.

Unfortunately it seems the moderator has had a bad experience with the breed, and has tarred all the dogs with the same brush, I'm sure there
are people who will have met badly tempered dogs in every breed, and formed an opinion on that basis.

I am aware that there are bad examples of the breed about, (I hope these are the minority), my advice is to meet as many different dogs in the
'fur' as possible before you decide if the Boerboel is right for you.

I think you have started out on the right foot, good luck with your research.

Lynne Berridge <ukboerboel@uk2.net>

(tried to join you board, to post myself, no reply from moderators)

Well, to reply to Lynnes statement:
"Unfortunately it seems the moderator has had a bad experience with the breed, and has tarred all the dogs with the same brush, I'm sure there
are people who will have met badly tempered dogs in every breed, and formed an opinion on that basis."

First off, I'm one of several mods on the board. Secondly, I had *two* bad experiences with a breed that is incredibly rare in the U.S., and those two dogs were the only members of the breed that I've met up close and personal. The vast majority of people in the U.S. have never heard of this breed much less trained one. I have, and so that is my current opinion of them, until I meet a well trained one with a stable temperment.

And I'm still not seeing many SchH titles or OB titles being put on these dogs that have been imported to the U.S. or the U.K. ( read *zero* titles, to my knowledge )

Small population numbers makes it hard to really know the ins and outs of a rare breed. How many of us really know first hand the temperment of a BRT, or the working ability of an Otterhound? It is likely that in it's native RSA, the Boerboel is a great dog - Reinier is a no nonsese kind of guy, and wouldn't be defending them as his favorite breed unless they had considerable merit. So it might be that the imports that we're getting in the U.S. would be considered low quality in it's home land ( like we all didn't see the Euro's do that to us with multiple brreds ) as most of the ones being imported here go to pet families ( if they went to people that would work them, the breeders would need to be sending better quality dogs, obviously )

I'm fine with people popping in to defend a breed, but in this case, only Reinier actually has experience with working the dogs.
Pet owners jumping in to defend a breed make me laugh. :rolleyes:

Ohh....I stand corrected!

Reading two Boerboel boards ( I viewed the one from Lynne's address, also ) , there were several *dozen* congratulatory threads about two Boerboels that recieved AKC OB and SchH titles.....

I was somewhat less impressed when I saw that the titles were a CGC and an AD.

And there were some long threads regarding unwanted aggression towards people, or the dogs showing "protective instincts" at age 12 weeks
So I'm not the only one seeing these problems...

Pet owners being the primary breeders/importers of the breed might have a helluva lot to do with the poor quality of dogs in the US.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I was thinking the same thing, VanCamp.
Reading those Boerboel boards, I was struck by the overall inexperience of the posters. The boards have tons of "oh look at the cute pictures of my dog" type posts, or "puppies for sale", but very few discussions on training, temperment, or the such.

Now, if they start importing some working Boerboels into this country... I think there's always a sub-set of folks that like to train and trial alternative breeds. I'd be interested to see a good one work in a skilled trainers hands.

And Alan,
Rather than posting on those Boerboel boards that this forum ( and myself ) are giving Boerboels a "bad rap", in your own words, please feel free to post your first hand experiences with training the breed, like I have done?

I await your experiences with interest.

Posted by the "so-called expert" ( in Alan's words )
Will Rambeau

Where is the link to this Boerboel board, someone please post it.

I'd like to join.

Will,

Two bad apples is hardly experience. You made yourself into the "so called expert" by lumping the whole breed as bad and thus defamed them all in this thread not really knowing what you were talking about because of your limited experience with two bad apples. As a moderator people look up to what you say. If you don't know, just say you don't know and look to learn with an open mind like I'm trying to do.

I posted that in the BB forum to try and get the other side of the story from people that keep, breed and train this dog. It wouldn't be fair for this forum to go away with your impression of the breed from your two bad apples without hearing the whole story.

You are right. On the BB boards there's very little mention of training or breeding to keep this breed a working dog. It won't take long before it's just another big adorable pet.

I tried asking about who breeds them and trains them for working abilities and it was like pulling teeth. Very few knew anything.

From what I've found most of the ratings are for conformation with no mention of working ability.