There are several different sources from which you could purchase boxer dogs. Local pet stores, newspaper classified advertisements placed by backyard breeders who have boxer dogs for sale-you can even purchase them from online. None of these sources is guaranteed to provide you with an American Kennel Club registered boxer, however. If you want an AKC registered boxer, you need to purchase one from a reputable breeder.

Choosing a Reputable Breeder

So, how do you know if a breeder is reputable? After all, respectable breeders may breed boxer dogs out of their homes, just like backyard breeders-does this mean that backyard breeders are, indeed, trustworthy?

Not necessarily. However, some backyard breeders could be of good standing. The best way to tell is to evaluate each breeder who is offering boxer dogs for sale. Here are some signs to look for:

1. Respectable breeders breed only dogs that have been properly health tested. Boxer dogs are genetically prone to several serious health conditions; these can usually be avoided when both boxer dog parents have been screened for these genetic predispositions.

2. Honest breeders who have boxer dogs for sale will be more than happy to provide you with a minimum of a 1-year written guarantee against genetic health problems (often, though, they will give guarantees of 2 or 3 years.). These breeders will also be willing to give you copies of the health testing that was done on the parents of the boxer dogs for sale.

3. Good breeders will also show the boxer parents in confirmation dog shows or they will title their dogs. Otherwise, if none of their dogs are of sufficient quality to be shown or to gain titles, their boxer dogs for sale may not be of good quality.

Here are some probably warning signs. If the breeder who has boxer dogs for sale displays any of these warning signs, it is likely that you will want to try to locate a different breeder.

4. Breeders who use a lot of buzzwords like "champion lines" may not be all that reliable. Ask them to delineate the "champion line" for you. You want to buy from a breeder with boxer dogs for sale whose "champion line" includes parents and grandparents that were title dogs and show dogs-not one whose line only includes titled great-great grandparents, for example.

5. Any breeder who has boxer dogs for sale who asks you to take the dog home before 8 weeks of age is very questionable. After all, boxers need the first 7 weeks of their lives to learn from being with their mothers and littermates.

6. Breeders with boxer dogs for sale with rare colors such as white, reverse brindle or black are disreputable. Why? Simply because these are not rare colors! White and reverse brindle are not rare at all, though some breeders may try to convince people that they are. As for black, that color does not even exist at all in purebred boxers! Dogs that look black are really dark brindle boxers.

By evaluating any breeder with boxer dogs for sale, you should be able to find a decent, honest breeder.