Evening star., 1940-05-26
KEEPING TAB ON THE DOG WORLD
News of Leaders Dogdom and Their Masters; Comments on
Breeds: Notes Shows Here and Elsewhere
By n. r. Tayntcn.

same year the Boxer Stud Book was
established In Germany, and al
though the first American boxer
champion finished his title In 1918,
by 1882 only two other dogs Of this
breed had made their titles here. To
most people. even the dog-conscious
ones, boxer meant simply . man who
lights In public for q living.
Today, the boxer is . breed that
Is gaining rapidly In popularity and
registrations. In the working group,
II there Is q boxer, 1t Is always the
dog that handlers Of other breeds
watch. It is becoming automatic
that In order to win the working
group you have to defeat the boxer.
The reason for this remarkable up
swing In favor Is two-fold, first, the
quality Of the dog and, second, q
concerted and clever piece Of bally-
hoo.
The boxer is q descendant Of one
Of the fundamental types Of dog.
His early ancestor was the Tibetan
Mastih. His primary purpose in life
was fighting. Among his contempo-
rary relations are the Spanish bull
dog, known as the Alamo, or Malin
de Terceiro, and the dogue de Bor-
deau, or bouldogue du Mida, .
French variant Of the same breed.
Boxer breeders and students of
boxer history emphatically deny a
cross to English bulldog or Great
Dane blood for the outlines Of the
modern boxer.
When confronted with the proof
that the progenitor of all modern
boxers, Toniessenn's Tom, was unde-
niably a bulldog and is so entered in
the pedigrees of all the boxers which
followed him, they evade the issue
by saying he was not an English
bulldog. What they mean is that he
was not an English bulldog Of the
modern. low-swung, exaggerated
type. They forget that in 1894, when
Toniessenn's Tom was bred to Alt
Scheckin so to found the modern
boxer dynasty, the English bulldog
was a higher stationed, lighter, more
active and more natural appearing
dog than he is now.
The differences between the bull
dog, the pit bull terrier and the
boxer were not nearly as marked as
they are now. Many an old boxer
breeder, as we'll as an old time pit
bull terrier breeder has remarked
that the two were often mistaken
for each other in the early days. A
judicious infusion of Great Dane
blood was doubtlessly used to create
some of that mobility" which the
standard demands.
Friedrich Roberth, Viennese who
had used Airedale terriers for hunt
ing. was one of the first to adopt
the boxer as a show dog. With two
friends, Elard Konig and r. Hopner
he began the promotion of his new
canine fancy. His first step was to
force the inclusion of q class for
boxers at the Munich st. Bernard
Show In 1895.
This was followed by the forma-
ton OF Boxer Club in 1895 and the
holding Of speciality show with 20
entries in March, 1896. At the
Munich show in 1896, there was an
entry Of Is boxers in three weight
classes. which precipitated many
arguments as to the correct boxer
standards and led to the formation
Of many boxer clubs at logger heads
with each other. It was not until
1911 that a united boxer club was
formed, with DR.. Schulein as head
and as editor Of Boxer Blatter, a
really influential breed paper.
The beginning Of the first World
War brought the qualities OF this
breed to the front as a war dog and
as a police dog. 1t was the first
breed used by the Germany Army
to ferret out Belgian and French
snipers who had been shooting
many German officers from ambush
BY 1925, the boxer was admitted to
competition for police dog and serv-
1SC oO6 0CSACCos EO1 CCtCld1 JCAlS
prior to this he had been used to
guide the blind.
While the boxer reached his pres
ent perfection Of quality in Ger
many, recent visitors to that coun-
try report that as q breed the boxer
has begun to retrogress in Germany
This Is doubtless due to two factors
the shortage Of food for dogs which
results in general weakening, light
er bone, reduced breeding ability
and the extensive export of their
best breeding stock to this country
AS the quality Of the boxer de-
clined in its native country, both
its quality and popularity rose here
One of the early imports to make
its mark here was Sieger Dampf Won
Dom, which was imported by Her
bert Lehman, now Governor Of New
York. This dog made its cham
pionship in 1915. Early in the 193os
the first Of the great imports came