Life in South Africa was physically taxing and frequently dangerous for humans and dogs alike. All-Purpose Protection Dogĭespite all this talk of Bulldogs, the Boerboel was bred to be an incredibly athletic animal. These Bullmastiff imports from the 1920s, along with longer-legged Bulldogs brought into the country by the British, helped solidify the Boerboel’s appearance, which is best understood by its degree of “bulldogginess.” Boerboels are bullier than Bullmastiffs (whose own breed formula is said to be 60 percent Mastiff and 40 percent Bulldog) but less so than the Dogue de Bordeaux, whose upsweep of chin and front-loaded weight distribution are even closer to Bulldog type. Erste Abtheilung – Säugethiere), chapter 78. From the book Brehms Thierleben/ Brehm’s Animal Life (Alfred Brehm: Brehms Thierleben. And even the most fleeting glimpse of a Boerboel reveals the Bullmastiff influence in terms of the large, blocky head, tremendous bone and traditionally seen colors and patterns (fawn, red and brindle).Įngraving of a Bullenbeisser dog, now extinct.

Centuries later, DeBeers imported some of Britain’s finest Bullmastiffs to patrol its famous diamond mines. Some of the Boerboel’s ancestors came with the first European settlers in southern Africa: When Jan van Riebeeck arrived in 1652 to work for the tea company that founded the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope, he brought along a Bullenbeisser – literally, “biter of bulls” – a now-extinct breed believed to have been involved in the development of the Boxer as well. “Boer” means farmer, and “boel,” loosely translated, is a large dog, like a mastiff. The breed’s origins are right there in its name: The Boers are the descendants of Dutch colonists who settled in Africa’s southernmost tip in the late 1600s. Origins of the Boerboelįirst, some history, murky as it might be: The Boerboel (pronounced “boo-r-bull”) is South Africa’s answer to the Mastiff. And in the case of the Boerboel, getting a dog from its native South Africa can be fraught with difficulty – for reasons that have to do with much more than mere logistics. Isn’t it always best to get a dog from its country of origin? I mean, you can’t get more authentic than a German Shepherd Dog from Germany, or an Italian Greyhound from Italy, or a Chinese Shar-Pei from China – right?

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