The intelligent, clownish breed that conquered Britain after the Second World War
Once described by Country Life as a 'stream-lined bulldog', the boxer rose from relative obscurity to become one of Britain's most popular dog breeds. Agile, intelligent and endlessly entertaining, this German working dog has won admirers from Zara Tindall to Humphrey Bogart.
‘Of the new breeds that have come to us in recent years the German seems as likely as any to win over the British public,’ Country Life reported in 1937.
At the time, the boxer was still largely unknown in Britain. Yet within a decade, the breed would surge in popularity, becoming one of the nation's favourite dogs. Following the Second World War, Country Life observed that boxers were ‘intelligent and teachable, and when they have quality they are good-lookers’.
Fashion-forward companions: a woman and her boxer sporting matching coats, 1957.
The breed was developed in Germany towards the end of the 19th century by crossing an old Continental fighting type known as the Bullenbeisser — literally ‘bull biter’ — with a white English-bred old-fashioned bulldog. The Bullenbeisser was an agile, powerful and exceptionally courageous dog, bred to hunt bears and boars as well as participate in bull-baiting. The resulting boxer would later be described by Country Life, rather aptly, as a ‘stream-lined bulldog’.
The Munich-based Deutscher Boxer Club was founded in 1896, although it took another six years before a breed standard was established and a further three before it gained widespread acceptance. Early breeders Philip and Friederun Stockmann, founders of the influential 'vom Dom' kennel, recalled that the first show boxers were ‘mostly white or piebald, small to the ground, without much nobility and often with very poor hindquarters but with fine and typical heads’.
Two boxer dogs await their turn in the ring at Crufts.
The first attempts to establish the breed in Britain met with little success. A well-bred bitch arrived in 1911 but made little impression, while a pair imported into Northern Ireland in 1919 failed to reproduce. In Germany, however, the breed flourished as a working dog.
One of the first breeds used for military and police service in Germany, boxers served as messenger dogs, guards, pack carriers and patrol dogs during both World Wars. Their athleticism, intelligence and trainability made them highly valued working companions. Although they are now rarely employed in working roles in Britain, boxers remain adept at tracking, obedience and protection work.
By the 1940s, Britain had begun to take notice and, by the following decade, the boxer ranked among the country's most popular breeds.
A devoted boxer keeps watch over a sleeping child, c.1945.
In a letter published in Country Life on February 29, 1952, reader Robert T. Ruddick of Wiltshire summed up the breed's appeal: ‘No boxer could be just an ordinary dog. They stand out a mile in every respect from every other breed, being highly intelligent, docile, good-natured and reliable.’
That assessment still rings true today. Described by Country Life as ‘an athlete, with a body as active as his mind’, the boxer combines energy and intelligence with a notably affectionate nature. The magazine also praised the breed's ability to balance ‘a fondness for minding the baby with a sensible and level-headed ability to mind the house’.
Playful, energetic and often gloriously silly, boxers possess a clownish streak that has endeared them to generations of owners. Their capacity to entertain is matched by their devotion to family life, making them both engaging companions and dependable household dogs.
Athletic, agile and powerful, the boxer was once prized as a military and police dog and remains one of the canine world's great all-round athletes.
The breed's admirers have included Zara Tindall, Clare Balding, Humphrey Bogart, Shirley Temple, Tony Curtis and Simon Callow.
As Country Life observed in 1970, the boxer is ‘not too big for a house of moderate size, with a short close coat that is no trouble to keep clean, a fondness for children’ and a distinctly ‘clownish’ sense of fun.
More than half a century later, that prediction appears to have been correct. The boxer remains a familiar sight at British firesides — an intelligent, loyal and endlessly entertaining companion.
For more of Agnes Stamp's fascinating breed histories, discover The Country Life Book of Dogs.
