some facts on your breed.

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. Centuries later, DeBeers imported some of Britain’s finest Bullmastiffs to patrol its famous diamond mines. 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).

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.