Breed · Dog

Boxer

German working breed from the 1890s, bred down from bull-baiting stock into a guard and family dog.

Boxers are among the most joyful, people-devoted dogs there are — bouncing, wiggling, leaning, paw-boxing their way through a household. They stay puppyish for years, which is charming right up until thirty kilograms of it takes a corner through your toddler. The face that gives the breed its expression is also a shortened one, and a buyer should go in with their ears open: listen to the parents breathe, and ask the hard questions about hearts.

At a glance

Lifespan: 10–12 years
Adult weight: 25–32 kg
Daily exercise: 90 min plus play
Trainability: High, with a comedy tax
Alone time tolerated: Moderate at best
Shedding: Light but constant
Noise level: Moderate
With children: Excellent, though it bowls them over
With other pets: Usually good; some same-sex dog scrap in them

Colours · 3 listed

Fawn or brindle, with or without white. White Boxers are the same breed and make fine pets; ask the breeder how they health-test and place them.

Fawn
Brindle
White

Right for you if

You want a dog that adores your children and shows it, physically.
A daily hour and a half of exercise and rough play is realistic.
You find a dog with a sense of humour endearing rather than trying.
Summer exercise can happen early and late, out of the heat.

Wrong for you if

Frail household members and a mid-sized cannonball are a bad mix.
You want dignity. There is none.
Hot-climate midday exercise is the only slot you have — a short-faced dog and heat are a poor pair.
You cannot face asking a breeder blunt questions about heart testing.

What to ask a breeder

The Boxer carries a heritable arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy — ventricular arrhythmias with a risk of sudden death — with an associated striatin deletion identified in the breed, and dogs carrying two copies are more severely affected.¹ Ask what cardiac screening the parents have had, by name, and whether a cardiologist did it.
Nothing on the UK Kennel Club’s scheme list for the breed touches the heart — the list is hips, elbows and eyes, and the breed sits in Breed Watch Category 2 for conformational concern.² The cardiac question is yours to ask, because no scheme asks it for you.
Listen to both parents breathe, at rest and after activity. Pick the puppy whose parents you could not hear.

Sources

Meurs KM, Mauceli E, Lahmers S, Acland GM, White SN, Lindblad-Toh K. Genome-wide association identifies a deletion in the 3’ untranslated region of striatin in a canine model of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. Human Genetics 2010. International doi:10.1007/s00439-010-0855-y PMID 20596727 The Boxer carries a familial arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy — ventricular arrhythmias with a risk of sudden death — and this work identified an 8-base-pair striatin deletion associated with it, with homozygous dogs more severely affected.
Boxer — breed health and pre-breeding screening. The Royal Kennel Club 2026. Accessed 2026-09-04. United Kingdom The Royal Kennel Club The UK Kennel Club's published screening lists for the breed: best practice is hip, elbow and eye schemes. No cardiac test appears on the list; the breed sits in Breed Watch Category 2.

Every source here was checked, not recalled. Where this page makes a health statement and no source appears against it, that is not an oversight we have hidden — it means the claim is not yet sourced, and the build reports how many are in that state.

Availability, registration and keeping requirements differ from place to place. Check the rules where you live before you commit to any animal — we describe animals, not law.