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White Boxer Dogs: Returning from the Shadows

While looking for a Boxer dog, you may have been warned not to get a white one. If so, it’s because white Boxers have long been considered second-class members of the Boxer breed. Why?

Until 1925, European breeders considered white Boxers to be equal to their colored relatives. Boxers, due to their intelligence, strength, and bravery, were used during World War I as guard dogs on the German front.

They performed so well that after the war, the German Boxer Club began an effort to have Boxers recognized as police dogs by the German government. They were successful, and in 1925, Boxers became official working police dogs for the Bavarian police force.

But there was a catch, and it doomed the white boxers. Any boxer whose coat had significant white markings was too conspicuous at night and therefore not suitable for police work. Therefore, the Bavarian police refused to register white Boxer dogs (those with more than a third of the white breed) as official police dogs, and from then until 2004, white Boxer dogs were excluded from registration in any of the Boxer breed standards of the world.

The Bavarian police’s decision to exclude white Boxer dogs from police work was justifiable and forced many breeders supplying Boxers as police animals to cull the white puppies from their litters, so that the others would get a larger share of the mother’s milk. and attention. But the reason for the sacrifice seems to have been lost to history.

Kennel clubs have since attributed their decision to exclude white Boxers to a predisposition to the health defects associated with the white Boxer dog. But the only health defect associated with excessive white pigmentation, in both dogs and cats, is deafness.

And among dogs, white-associated deafness has been scientifically linked only to Dalmatians who carry an extreme piebald gene; other breeds, including boxers, have been treated with the same brush. Deafness occurs when insufficient pigmentation of the inner ear causes auditory nerve cells to die. But the American Boxer Club never conducted its own studies on White Boxer dogs, which carry a double dose of the same gene, to determine if it affects them in the same way.

ABC, on the other hand, prohibited in its Code of Ethics the registration, sale or placement of white boxers. Breeders could cull their white boxer dogs or keep them. And the Code didn’t change until 1985, when the ABC relented and allowed White Boxer dogs to be placed, but still prohibited their registration or breeding.

And while there have been no official studies to support claims that white Boxers are susceptible to more health problems than colored Boxers, Hawkleigh Boxers of Australia conducted a private survey of breeders that indicated their white Boxers actually they had fewer health problems.

White Boxer dogs, according to the breeders surveyed, experienced more deafness and sunburn, but were less likely to suffer from digestive problems, skin diseases and tumors, and spinal disorders. But the American Boxer club’s lack of interest in checking for any white Boxer dog health issues remains puzzling.

The ABC, in 2004, relented somewhat and changed its Code of Ethics to allow breeders to offer limited AKC registration and refundable spay/neuter deposits, and to collect medical expenses directly associated with their white boxer puppies.

But these beautiful, intelligent and affectionate white Boxers, who offer the best features of their breed, are still a long way from overcoming the unfair stigma placed on them because their ancestors, the police dogs, were too easy to see in the dark.