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We already have a split Boxer breed.  Walk into any veterinary clinic and look at the Boxers that come in for ear taping, check-ups, treatment, etc.  Look at them long and hard.  What you are likely to see is a great divergence from head type in those Boxers – incorrect proportion of muzzle, incorrect proportion of muzzle to back skull, body quite probably not square, either way over or way under the height as stated in the standard.  Angulation quite possibly way off – either too angulated in the rear or too straight. You will see Boxers that are not well-trained, that lunge at the lead and want to dominate the waiting room. But you will also see the wiggles and the squiggles and the nuzzling and the kisses.

On walks in parks you will notice the same divergence from the Standard in the Boxers you see there.  But the owners love their Boxers and think them as beautiful as any Boxer you see in the ring.  When our dogs who have proved their worth in the show ring are out in public, there will be people who come up and say "I've got a Boxer at home that looks just like that, he's beautiful, but he’s bigger; or she's beautiful but she’s a lot smaller."  I suspect that the greatest resemblance between their Boxer and the one we have at the time is that their Boxer has flash. But they love their Boxer – he/she is a cherished member of the family. Their Boxer – as beautiful as ours or not – adds immeasurably to their lives.

Showing is by no means for everyone.  First, the expense:  People have health insurance to pay (which goes up exponentially), they have children to clothe and feed and put through school.  For the experience of competition in their lives some may choose to do Little League, or soccer, or Pop Warner, or dancing lessons – not showing.  Secondly, the showing experience – by which I mean the spirit of competition that drives all exhibitors in one way or another – can be a healthy, pleasant experience....or not.  Some new exhibitors can be fortunate and find great mentors and supporters, and some can find backbiting and the most appalling exhibitions of poor sportsmanship that send them hurrying to the nearest exit.  Some people cannot travel with a dog while it is being shown and won't let it go away from home.

I wish there were some way of tracking the statistics of puppies produced and placed in pet homes by breeders who exhibit and, in theory, breed to better the breed.  I am willing to bet the motorhome on the fact that the percentage of puppies out of a breeding from champion to champion (not one champion somewhere in a 4 or 5 generation pedigree) and placed in pet homes is miniscule in relationship to the number of Boxers bred and registered each year.

Showing and breeding dogs that have finished their championship is a very elitist occupation. 

The number of puppies produced is very small in relationship to the demand for quality dogs.  Exhibitors and breeders talk to each other.  Their community has its own language, its own culture, and its own icons.  I don't see a purposeful reaching out to the wider dog-loving community by exhibitors and breeders except to combat PETA which directly threatens their own activities.  When I had an email contact link on the ABC website I had emails from people who wanted to join the ABC because they love their Boxer and they wanted to support the breed and feel that they were a part of a Boxer community.  They can't at the national level.  Very few member clubs have the manpower or the time to reach out to the Boxer community at the local level.  If they could do so and would do so, I suspect that we could cut the rescue population very significantly.

In being one of the primary contact points for the distribution of health tapes I have been impressed with the number of people who apparently do not belong to the ABC OR local member clubs, but who purchase tapes because they feel that they should be informed about the health and welfare of the Boxer members of their family.  I talked on the phone last night to one family who had ordered a set of tapes because "we have three Boxers and we thought we ought to know about these things."  Maybe they would also purchase tapes on "Training Your Boxer," "Your Boxer in the Puppy and Adolescent Years," or "Should You Breed Your Boxer? Maybe Not."

A split between those who show and those who don't is evident in the existence of the various Boxer mailing lists.  We started out with one list about 1994 or 95 and now have many lists.  (I believe that I was the first member of the BML to admit that we were breeders.) There are now two large lists for show topics and although they will accept litter announcements, birthday celebrations, show brags, etc., they frown on our sharing our day to day experiences with our Boxers.  The show lists (which are largely repetitive) are for "serious stuff" – as opposed, I guess, to other lists that only post "frivolous stuff."  And so the split continues.

If we, as "serious breeders" are concerned about what we consider to be the effects of uncontrolled or inappropriate breeding, we ought to take a long, hard look at reality.  People are going to purchase Boxers, they are going to breed Boxers, they are going to try to do the best they can for their Boxers, they are going to abuse their Boxers, and they are going to abandon their Boxers.  We spend a great deal of time, effort, and the family fortune in maintaining our own small community. Perhaps we could make purposeful efforts to be more inclusive rather than exclusive.  Then, perhaps, the wider Boxer community would take our concerns about breeding to better the breed more seriously.