Arizona Boerboels

Jean and Sandy Minnaar

Jean Minnaar of Arizona Boerboels was born and raised in South Africa and has been around the Boerboel breed all his life.  He is fluent in Afrikaans (language of South Africa), which allows him to deal first hand with the SABT and other South African breeders.  Upon coming to the United States of America it was his desire to bring a piece of home (this wonderful breed) to the USA.

Sandy Minnaar is an avid dog lover and has always had dogs in her household.   She has raised Australian Shepards in the past and now loves nothing more than raising her Boerboels from puppy stage to adulthood.  She also enjoys training her dogs with the Koehler method and recently showing in the Rare Breed Show for fun.

Jean and Sandy Minnaar have both completed successfully the Breeders Course of the SABT (South African Boerboel Breeder Association) certified breeders.  They also traveled to South Africa and attended and passed the SABT Appraiser course exams.  The Appraisers course is offered by the SABT for Certified Breeders who want to do a more intense study of the breed and become an SABT appraiser.  Jean had the opportunity to appraise along side the Senior Appraisers of South Africa this past year.  He obtained SABT Appraiser status in 2005 and toured the US for its 2005 appraisals.

Our Setup

If you have a broadband connection, you can view a video (5 MB) of some of our boerboels playing just after irrigating our property.

People visit our kennels all the time.  We love showing our dogs and facilities to those that have made arrangements to stop by.  However, when we have young puppies on the ground, we do limit what the visitors have access to plus more.  What we are talking about here, are the pups that are not fully vaccinated yet.  Certainly the visitors will be shown the youngsters, but the visitors are not allowed to touch the little ones and neither allowed to go into the area they are being raised in.  We also have visitors take off their shoes and walk in "painters'" shoe apparel.  This may seem extreme to some, but we do everything we can to protect our unvaccinated pups from disease like Parvo.  Should you purchase a pup from us, you can rest assure they are well protected, not only by mamma, Jean and Sandy, but also our other Boerboels.

Our kennels are air conditioned and are like mini apartments with doggie doors going out to large grass runs.  We strive to have what we call “playtime” at least once per day so that all our dogs stay socialized with each other and get exercised.  We bring out the balls and it is quite a sight to see so many Boerboels engaged in what we call “Boerboel rugby”.  This 1.5 MB video clip will give you a quick glimse of our setup/kennels.

Bloodlines

Should you be interested in which bloodlines we have, we primarily have the following: Ysterberg, El Shadai, Grasland, Rustverwacht and Gretchen

Our Viewpoint on a Boerboel’s Natural Character and Bite Training

This write-up does not address bite training pertaining to Boerboels used in police or military work.

There is a lot of documentation available on what a Boerboel should look like (its phenotype) and not enough on the Boerboels’ character.  Below are some true stories and examples of the essence of “A Boerboel’s Natural Character”.

If you have done some research about the Boerboel, then surely you have read the magical stories about the Boerboel and their almost superdog level of communication with their owners. Several stories describe Boerboels (like below), that seem to know what their owners are thinking, and that they are very social, confident and tolerant of everyone until someone threatens their family, at which point they defend with their lives. All of the things that are mentioned here are definitely possible with the Boerboel. However, a considerable amount of work is involved in attaining these qualities. These dogs are not for everyone. They are only recommended for the serious dog owner with a natural ability to lead.

We refer you to Boerboel Rescue's description of a Boerboel's character as well.

Some 40 years ago, in South Africa, Jean’s grand parents had on their farm, amongst other dogs, a Boerboel.  At times when the jackal population would get out of hand and the men would go hunt jackal, all the dogs would be very keen on joining.  But as long as grandma was home, the Boerboel would refuse to go along.  That Boerboel recognized that grandma was the weakest family member and that she was his number one responsibility.

Our oldest male Jackson had not been exposed to young children prior to a few years ago.  He had only seen them from a distance other than people bringing their children along to view the dogs or on walks through the neighborhood and or the park.  Then there came a Grandson, a one year old wobbly toddler.  The first day he met the boy he initially tried to play with him but quickly found out he was vulnerable and weak on his feet.  He then took it upon himself to walk with the child all day.  He put his body in between the babe and the goats, between the babe and the pool, between the babe and the large ruts in the yard and between the babe and the neighbor dogs.  No one had to train him to do this, it is his very nature.  Today, they are great friends, Kyle rides Jackson like he is a horse and they chase each other through the house and yard.

People whom have bought pups from us call and ask, “Is it normal for a three-month-old Boerboel to prevent the kids from leaving the house?”  Their pups seem to be placing their bodies in the toddlers’ way to prevent them from harm.  “This can’t be possible when they are just pups themselves can it?”   Others would tell us that their young puppy growled on a couple of occasions at strangers that approached the wife and that on each of those incidences the characters that approached the wife, were very shady characters.  Our older Boerboels make character identification very quickly and they are always right.  They help us to screen our buyers.

Depending on who they are with, a Boerboel responds differently when approached by a stranger -- more protective when with a female or child.

Boerboels are not where they are today because of bite training.  In fact bite training has never been part of the Boerboel’s history.  How would bite training reinforce the characteristics that a Boerboel is known and loved for?  With bite training the Boerboel is exposed to fake “danger” conditions and actually taught to attack by command as opposed to using its own judgment.  People doing bite training tell us they do that because bite training involves training your dog to be called off.  But, only if someone really endangers the Boerboel’s family, should the Boerboel engage.  Before then the Boerboel will give the intruder a deep growl and only an idiot would ignore that growl.  Certainly it is much more important to rather work on enhancing the Boerboel’s judgment on when to and when not to engage.

Recently, a very sweet natured and almost passive Boerboel female came to visit one of our males to be covered.  She quickly got comfortable and made herself at home, all the time being very submissive to all our dogs.  However, the day her owner came to pick her up, Jean brought one of the younger females out for the visitor to take a closer look at.  There was a fence between the two dogs.  Our youngster attacked the fence and Jean expected the submissive Boerboel to exit the scene as usual.  However, she viewed the aggression towards her as an aggression towards her owner.  She turned into a very assertive dog and returned the offense placing herself between her owner and our youngster.  Her owner was very surprised as he had never seen her behave this way before.  He walked away with a new respect for his Boerboel.  She, like most Boerboels, will engage in a heartbeat if she deems her family is being threatened.

A Boerboel should not chase something down.  It has to stay with its people and protect them.  It is not a man hunter, but a family friend and guardian.

All you are going to end up with by applying bite training, is an overly aggressive dog and Boerboel owners paying through their necks for insurance (if they can still get it).

If you want to reinforce the behavioral characteristics of the Boerboel, then do so, but do not bite train the Boerboel as that will not reinforce what a Boerboel is all about and in fact will add behavior that is not typical Boerboel.