- Eliot Kaplan, DVM -
Boxer dogs come in an assortment of different colours. But one colour that I see more than I used to is white. In the past, white boxers were rare. That was because many breeders believed that if a boxer was white, it was predisposed to health problems. As a result, if a damn delivered a white pup, the breeder would often have it euthanized. Worse yet, some breeders would simply place the newborn pup in the freezer and let it succumb to hypothermia.
Thankfully this trend is undergoing a reversal. Many breeders are now allowing the white pups to live. Because of their colour, they are not used as show dogs, but they make excellent pets and are sold for this purpose.
Over the past 25 years in practice, I have not seen a significant difference in health issues in white boxers compared to boxer of other colours. Regardless of the colour of the boxer, the boxer breed in general is predisposed to cancers as well as heart disease. That does not mean that all boxers die of cancer or heart disease. It simply means that there is a higher incidence of cancers and heart disease in the boxer breed compared to other breeds.
So, if you want a white boxer, then go ahead and get one. The only precaution that I would take is that on hot, sunny days, apply number 30 sunscreen on the nonhaired, nonpigmented, exposed areas. These are areas that are predisposed to sunburn. |
