Mutant Monster Boxer Puppies!!

I had a couple of my German Boxer puppies running outside and playing in and around our trout ponds the other day, and, as usual, I was snapping away photos of them with my Nikon DSLR camera. They are typically very photogenic, and terribly cute. But later, when I reviewed the shots I had taken, I had to laugh when I saw the one you see here! Caught in mid-flight, these three Boxer girls have the funniest and contorted facial expressions! Add some flying ears and they look like a monster movie in the making! Just had to share!

Happy National Dog Day!

Today is National Dog Day!

Give that special four legged friend of yours a big old hug! Better yet, take them for a nice long walk, go for a run in the park, or treat them to some great one-on-one time with the most important person in their life!

Pool Party Puppies!

The dog days of summer are upon us, and with the heat and humidity rising today, the puppies and I had a pool party. Their favorite pool activity, (besides drinking the contents of the pool), is bobbing for toys, as this picture of some of the partygoers illustrates. The frog toy is popular, because he floats, and when gripped, squeaks. Once a toy is grabbed, the winning puppy leaps from the pool, followed by the others in chase, and then victory laps are done all around the yard, frequently involving scaling patio furniture. The whole group then ends up back at the pool, where they leap in and start the game all over again.

Tails! You win!

Wow! Things around here have been busy, busy, and it has been quite a while since I posted! More puppies have left our German Boxer nest since then. Speaking of puppies, a number of people have asked why our latest pups have been left with tails intact. There are several reasons why we chose to not dock this time around.

Because our dogs are of European descent, the ones we have imported in the past 10 years have had tails. Much of Europe bans both tail docking and ear cropping. Although it seemed strange to us at first, we have now become accustomed to our long tailed Boxers, and actually like how expressive the tails are. It is very easy to "read" the dogs' mind set by their tails. And who knew how much a happy Boxer (and they are almost ALWAYS happy) wags his tail!! So when you see a tail on a Boxer, it can denote their European heritage, opposed to American breeding lines. And because some of the people that acquire dogs from us compete internationally, having a tail on their dog will not limit their ability to compete in docked tail "banned" countries.

Another reason the tails were left on is, frankly, because docking them has always been a pain, literally AND figuratively. Regardless of whether we had them stitched, superglued, or stapled, the Momma dogs just never could leave those stump ends alone, and invariably chewed the ends open on one or more pups, meaning more trips to the vet and the threat of infection. Not to mention a few pups ending up with Rottweiler stumps as the Momma dogs chewed the already short tails even shorter!

But there has been a lot of resistance among some potential puppy buyers. In fact, several people have passed on one of these exceptionally talented young Boxers simply because of the long tails! That's too bad, because these are some of the finest puppies we have produced in our 20 plus years of breeding German Boxers. But their loss is someone else's gain.

So will I leave the tails on next time I breed a litter of German Boxers? That remains to be seen.