Quick Links

Introduction

History

Standard

Importing

Anecdotes

The Boerboel is not registered with the UK Kennel Club, therefore you cannot get KC papers for your dog.
The SABT is the original and largest registry organisation and is based in South Africa. Currently all Boerboels in the UK & Ireland are registered with them,

Every Boerboel is supplied with a birth certificate stating its pedigree. However, in order for to be fully registered, the dog must be appraised by an official S.A.B.T. judge. This ensures only high quality Boerboels are used to continue the linage as you cannot breed from a Boerboel unless it has scored sufficentley in its appraisal.

Please note that dogs must be at least 9 months old before being evaluated, therefore if someone tells you that they have a Boerboel puppy for sale that has been scored - this is NOT an officially recognised grading and you should be very suspicious about the pup and breeder. See below for more information about the appraisal system.

Appraisal System:

The Boerboel is appraised before being bred, to ensure the quality of the breed.
The Appraisal system follows the Breed Standard and shows 12 main divisions that are given a mark. Each of these main divisions can be sub divided; for example the hindquarter main division has the Hind Paws sub division within it.

each division has at least three characteristics which is awarded a mark, there are three marks than can be assigned these are:

A practical and in depth knowledge of the breed standard is needed to judge a Boerboel. Personal preference in respect of body, colour, pigmentation, mask etc. should not have any influence over the judge.

An Appraisal Form is used for each dog that a judge grades, a judge will recorded a mark for each characteristic on the form. This means that each characteristic is evaluated and scored individually.

A Standard point or (+) is awarded if a judge decides that a dog fulfills the required breed standard.

If the specific characteristic does not conform to the breed standard, the judge will determine how much of a deviation exists; if the fault is minor the dog will receive a minor deviation mark or (O) this means the deviation will not have a large impact on the dog and can be bred out by the next few generations.

However if the deviation is more severe a major deviation mark will be given or (-), this means that the characteristic will usually affect other areas of the dog.

(If a dog recives all O's the total score would be 75%)

Disqualifying characteristics are very serious, if a dog is found to have one of these the appraisal will only continue if the owner is made aware that the results will be given for a "Pet Quality" Boerboel and the dog will not be used in any breeding program.

Once a dog has completed the appraisal process, his/her marks will be calculated to give an overall percentage.
Firstly each of the three marks in the same row will be added together e.g. if there are three +'s the total mark will be +3; if there are three -'s the total mark will be -3.

This row total is then added to the NORM column to give the appraisal points for that particular row. e.g. 7+3=10.

These points are then multiplied by the "Value of Subdivision" column to give the overall row total. These row totals are then added together to eventually give you the percentage appraisal score.

Whew! Just in case that was a little hard to follow rows 7,8 & 9 of an appraisal form have been re-produced below:

- Introduction - History - Standard - Importing - Anecdotes -