The BU Book Review

MY LIFE WITH BOXERS
Order your own copy!

by Friederun von Miram-Stockmann

Containing over 70 additional pages never before published in English, in a new translation from the Third German Edition...by Cal Gruver.

 You MUST own this book! No two ways about it, My Life with Boxers is the most important book about the origins and development of the Boxer breed ever written...by the most important breeder in the history of the breed. And with the addition of 70 pages of Friederun Stockmann’s writings never before published in English and the fact that part of the purchase price goes directly to the American Boxer Charitable Foundation, the new MLWB is a great bargain at $100. (My partner, Pat, bought a well-used copy of a previous edition at ABC several years ago and paid $75 for it!)

In his new translation, Cal Gruver, the editor of The ABC News Bulletin, has remained true to the original tone of Friederun Stockmann’s memoirs - the pages of the new edition are covered with over 600 of the line drawings with which she illustrated the previous editions (those sketches alone are worth the purchase price!) - while adding lots of new material. Mrs. Stockmann’s black and white photographs did not reproduce as well in this edition as in the 1968 English edition that I own, and there is one error on page 137 (Primus v. Dom and Abra-Dabra of Sirrah Crest are incorrectly identified as Zorn and Lustig vom Dom), but Cal Gruver has included a number of additional photos, including one of a young Larry Downey just returned from WWII with three of the Boxers he imported to improve the breed in America!

In addition to being living history, MLWB is a timeless reminder that the dog game was pretty much the same in 1909 as it is in 1999:

On the problem of white boxers: "It is almost impossible to control the problems of whites and cleft palettes when the breeders just have them disappear. But with the correct and full information, how much better off our breed would be!"

On monorchids: "The war ended our efforts to move toward non-carrier breeding; in fact cryptorchidism became unimportant. We could not get to the most desired sires, the condition was no longer noted in the record books, and all attempts to monitor it failed. So today we are still back where we were long ago. If a cryptorchid appears in the litter, the sire is blamed, and over and over we forget that a recessive trait can only develop when the condition is carried by both parents."

On inbreeding: "Strictly speaking, all of our Boxers are related. In order to avoid genetic damage through the continued use of this small gene pool, it is best to avoid inbreeding...as much as possible. Sometimes beginners and thoughtless breeders trying to save money, or for convenience, or out of ignorance, engage in it, and that is dangerous..."

On animal rights activists: "Anyone who claims that training is torture only makes himself appear ridiculous in the view of those who know dogs...Above all, we train our dogs to be of use to us and to make our lives together easier and more pleasant. Even if a much greater number of dogs were trained, it would still not be grounds for the animal rightists to make a justified complaint..."

On conformation versus obedience: "...the goal of breeding is not to stress one above the other. Mainly to get rid of this idea that one must choose either beauty or performance for a breeding goal, I decided to train all my breeding dogs for performance. After all, the same basic drives are anchored in all of our Boxers..."

Finally, on the envy of one’s fellow breeders: "...If you wish to become unpopular, just buy a beautiful dog..."