May 2005 Puppy University Course Winner

WOW, that is wonderful …. I have never won anything!!

I live in South Africa. I was looking for info about puppies and training on the web and came across your very informative site.

My puppy is a Boerboel (a South African breed) and his name is Shumba (means Lion in Ndebele). My puppy is now 9 weeks old – photo was taken when he was 7 weeks, our first weekend that we had him. Boerboels are known as family guard dogs, but have a wonderful temperament.

They are a large breed (weighing up to 60 – 70kg) and are believed to be reasonably closely related to the Bull Mastiff. We did a lot of research on various dogs before deciding on a boerboel as our first family dog and everyone we spoke to said they were fantastic family dogs that are very protective over their family.

As with all dogs with the proper upbringing they are easily controllable and know their place within the family. We have had a case in the last 2 weeks where a woman was killed by their pet boerboel but upon reading the story further it was bought out that they had got the dog from the SPCA (South African Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) and nothing is mentioned as to whether it was cross bred or how old the dog was when they got it.

We got ours from a breeder and saw both the mother and father who both had fantastic tempraments. They look vicious but if their owner accepts a person into the property / home they are more than likely to lick you to death than bite. If however the owner shows any fear they will protect their owner with their life.

Our breeders website is http://tuffa.freewebpage.org/ . Our pup's father is Ben and mother is Hippo. Our pup had his first check up at the vet last weekend and was extremely good. She said he has a very placid nature – apparently you can tell at 6 weeks if a dog is inclined to be agressive.

We are trying to socialise him a lot so he is completely comfortable with people of all ages and with other animals. So far he has reacted fantasically to all situations he's been placed in.

For more info on boerboels have a look at this website. http://home.yebo.co.za/\\\\~mcewendp/index.html

Once again many thanks for this wonderful suprise … I am delighted and am planning to use the money to buy Shumba his kennel!

Liesl S.

Kwa – Zulu Natal
South Africa