What are the functions of the Boerboel?
– If the function is so very important; we must ask ourselves: What are the functions of the Boerboel? The Boerboel must be a guard dog and a (working) farm dog. A guard dog does 99.9% of his work by intimidating would be intruders. Apart from the very necessary and obvious trait, temperament, he must have three very important conformational characteristics: 1) Size. 2) Head. 3) Muscling. Without discussing these traits it is obvious how important they are. There is no way that an intruder could be scared off with a smallish dog with a small long (hound) face and a narrow weak body. While we must always remain very careful not to over select for any trait, we must breed an impressive Boerboel. With all three these traits there is an optimum. If a guard dog is not agile he cannot patrol the premises. Too large and too heavily muscled Boerboels is not agile and will be lazy dogs and cannot be used for guard work either. Too much muscling is also associated with hip and elbow problems. A
