Boxer Shepherd mix – Your All Weather Companion
Boxer shepherd mix is an intelligent breed with a powerful combination of German shepherd and Boxer dog. They are quite good looking, loyal, and friendly. But how do you know they will best suit your lifestyle or for that matter will be your companion for at least 10-15 years? In this article, we will bring you some interesting facts about Shepherd Boxer.
Origin of Boxer Shepherd
Boxer German Shepherd is a mix breed of boxer dogs and German shepherd dogs. Boxers are descendants of hunting dogs, now extinct called German Bulllenbeisser and Bulldog. These Bulllenbeisser originally were bred to hunt bear, deer and wild boar. After some long association with humans, they become efficient guard dogs. The modern time boxer evolved around in the late 19th century. At the same time, humans started using the services of Shepherd dogs to guard sheep and cattle.
As the parents are from the different breeds, it is difficult to guess what will the genetic inheritance of the puppies. But you can be assured that you will get a large, dominant dog. They can weight from 65 to 95 lbs. depending on their genetics and body shape. The average height is between 23 to 27 inches.
Training and Grooming
The Boxer Shepherd is very active, so it required an environment that can meet its ‘active’ nature. If you are living in a confined atmosphere, then the dog is not for you. It requires a lot of exercises, running, walking and playing. These hybrids are too energetic and so need some outlets to channelize their energy.
Mental exercise in the form of entertainment is also necessary for these pooches. From a very young age, they have to provide training lessons in primary discipline and manners.
These dogs have the characteristic of being overly protective and will sit next to you for hours just for being patted. Socializing these dogs from puppy stage to behave well with everybody goes a long way. You need to take proper care and precautions, if you have pets or children at home, as it might be too playful and scare the child.
When it comes to shedding hair, it varies from one Boxer Shepherd mix to another. It mostly depends on which parent's coat it takes, the Boxer parent coat or Shepherd parent coat. If it has inherited Boxer's skin, it will not shed much, but if the coat has inherited from German shepherd coat then there will be a lot of seasonal shedding. So they have also been nicknamed as German Shedders.
Their coat is easy to maintain and needs brushing only once a week for shedding a right amount of hair. It will have maximum shedding during spring and autumn.
Boxer Shepherd Mix and IQ level
Boxer shepherd mix dog is admirable not only for looks but also posses’ high IQ level as compared to other average dogs. Both boxer and German shepherd excel in guarding, and they are best to guard dogs of the day; hence, you can find the same qualities in this mix breed.
The average lifespan of German shepherd mix dog in a given standard environment is anything between 10-13 years. It encounters insignificant health problems during its lifetime. A common rule concerning their lifespan is if the weight of your dog is 90Ibs it will live for 8 to 10 years for average. But if it weighs less than 90Ibs it will live for 11 to 12 years approximately.
Common Traits
These are large sized dog requiring a good amount of physical activities and exercise daily for maintaining a healthy life and keeping behavioral problems away.
It is very loyal to its owner and family members living in the home. They are protective by nature thus making them excellent guard dogs. If socialized well in early stage these dogs get along well with family members and other pets of the household.
As these dogs are large sized, they require much more extensive space preferably a yard to play around or move freely. So living in apartments will find difficult to manage the dog.
These dogs are very playful in nature. However, because of their size, it is good to keep a watch on their interactions with children as its playful actions sometimes scare the children. It might not be a problem if they get enough training during their early stage of life.
Separation anxiety:
These dogs display a lot of separation anxiety disorders when it has nobody around to care. If you are a person, who have long working hours, then German shepherd mix is not a right choice. You should make sure that somebody from your family circle can take care of the dog until you return from the workplace. As a best practice, make sure you can manage the situation, by making alternative companion arrangement for your dog.
Conclusion
All dogs required proper training and personal care. But in the case of Boxer shepherd mix, it requires some extra attention and adequate training. You need to make sure that you can give the necessary discipline training at an early stage; otherwise, it can create havoc in your life. As you know, it is a large dog with a lot of energy and possess a playful nature; you have to take the dog for regular exercise and outing. Proper training and conditioning can make this dog as your best companion throughout its life.
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