Bachelor's degree in white boxer

On April 15 she graduated in breeding techniques at the University of Pisa Dr. Barbara Fabbrizzi, who was already intern at the breeding of Casa Bartolini by our President Stefano Bartolini, who took care of the discussion of thesis as an external Tutor.

The thesis is a study on the breed boxer, from origins to modern breeding techniques, and has been supported by an original research based on a questionnaire addressed to the owners. The sample of 223 subjects provided data elaborated with statistical techniques and is divided between 101 subjects fulvi, 83 tiger and 39 white. The aim of the work was - in addition to shed light on the general conditions of the breed - to highlight possible behavioural and health differences in relation to the colour variation of the mantle. It should be noted that white boxers constitute 18% of the sample, therefore a significant and well proportioned share compared to the real percentage of white subjects in relation to the total population.

On the behavioral side the boxer is known as a breed that - as is well known to the owners - demands "a very expensive man-dog relationship in terms of time and energy." We will not be on the so-called unwanted behaviors, as they are related to the proverbial hyper-excitability of the boxer. As is predictable, at the top of the ranking we find: pulling on the leash, having too many parties to the hors d'oeuvres, jumping down, etc., all behaviors to which the boxer owners have resigned, becoming inclined to consider them an ineliminable element of their typical character, rather than a phenomenon to fight with education.

The part that concerns the health data of the sample found, which shows that the boxer enjoys overall good health, being the only disease very widespread dermatitis, particularly of allergic type, often associated with otitis (which sometimes constitute the only symptom). They present this disorder about 20% of the colored subjects and 30% of whites, which are less predisposed to otitis: 2% compared to 15% of colored.

The Filevi appear to have a general lower dermatological problem, but a greater predisposition to kidney disease (10% compared to a much lower percentage in tiger and white). While the tiger have a higher incidence of tumors to reproductive apparatus. There are no problems of deafness or blindness for any coloration. Whites suffer from higher eye disorders of other type (conjunctivitis, etc.). In the sample white subjects appear to have less cardio-respiratory diseases and in fewer numbers are monorchids and cryptorchids.

As for the diseases that are subject to official examinations by the Boxer Club Italia, the most frequent one would seem spondylosis (about 6%), while the dysplasia on the hip and heart diseases affect for less than 5%. Data that are neither irrisor nor alarming and denote an overall state of good health achieved also thanks to the monitoring of the breeding animals.

The belief of a breed with many health problems and the legend of white coloring as the bearer of various sanitary altars is therefore disassembled. The white boxer, with some variations, is as healthy as the tiger and the Fulvo and - for some diseases - boasts even better health than its colored brothers. It is also proved unfounded the alarmism of a race with too many problems to be able to face a new health emergency, brought by the white boxer in breeding.

This study is part of a consolidated trend in Germany, which deepens - now that the white subjects are and are many - the comparison between this less frequent and less known coloration - for historical and genetic reasons known to all - and the Falvo and Tiger boxer, as we have always been accustomed to seeing it. It is a question of deciding whether the exclusion of all whites from the breeding, historically consolidated, has from its own scientific foundations proven. At the moment, beyond the rumors, these have not yet been found and therefore to say it with the words of Dr. Fabbrizzi:

The results of our survey have shown that the differences, both behavioural and pathological, in the Boxer breed dog are found for all the colors of the mantle and not only for the White Boxer. We can therefore conclude, in accordance with the researches of Bauer and the decided of the German Boxer Klub, that the re-introduction of the white Boxer in reproduction is not only possible (initially experimentally, through further investigations, a few years monitoring of a group of white breeding animals and the introduction of the official audiometric examination) but could also be useful to widen and vary the genetic heritage of the breed, always and especially with the awareness and rigour of the breeders in the choices of the breeding animals, (...)

Further details on Boxer White visiting the dedicated section on the site .