Misconceptions Boerboels are not psychic or mind readers. They do not know instinctively when their owners feel threatened more than any other breed. There are many dogs, irrespective of breed, which are able to pick up on the slight psychological differences their handlers give off. To use this as a marketing tool is highly irregular. Boerboels are a breed which do not need guard training? On the contrary! They most certainly do! To allow any large breed to develop and decide who is a threat is an irresponsible and irrational statement. Tell this to the thousands of innocent victims bitten each year. A large minority of Boerboels do not come with a natural ability to guard and protect you with their lives. If anybody says otherwise, let them prove it. A Boerboel would chase down a rabbit and kill it for the evening meal, whilst accompanying the children on the veld. I can only say: Have a look at today’s Boerboels and see for yourself. The Boerboel is one of the healthiest mastiff breeds in the world, due to their descent from the ancient dogs.  This is clearly a false statement and totally absurd. Offering finest bloodlines as a selling point is nothing more than a myth. Look back just a few generations and you will see common ancestors in all Boerboels. Go back a considerable few more generations and you will find the common ancestors of most of the South African dogs. Most of these so called ffinest blood lines have never been courage tested. Having owned big dogs in the past does not necessarily mean that you are an experienced dog owner or good dog handler. We would be happier to give a large dog to a poodle, shitzu or Yorkshire terrier owner, if those dogs show strong obedience skills, and more importantly, their owners have good skills. Not everyone has the privilege of owning acres of land to house dogs. At Performance Boerboel we believe that giving dogs ample physical exercise and mental stimulation on a daily basis will be more important. The majority of mastiffs in the UK and Europe have received bad publicity over the years, due to the dogs being unsocialised and worked hard in defence. You can raise a dog 30,000 feet into the air, but what will you do to control the situation? Some of these dogs can be and will make good, close personal protection prospects, however, due to misguided and ill-informed individuals, the training methods have been incorrect. If you watch carefully, you will see these prospects crack under full frontal pressure, unable to achieve a full mouth bite and not re-grip when the decoy relaxes, only take lunging nips and are unwilling to fully engage or take the fight to the man and display obvious signs of avoidance behaviour. Most of these mastiffs have never had the opportunity of having their drives channelled. For us it is absolutely imperative that family guardian protectors are completely socialised and friendly, are given the knowledge to counter attack and re-bite in different body parts and  have the ability to avoid severe stick hits by counter defending. Agitation work is a skill and whipping dogs up in fenzies does not best serve the purpose of close protection prospects. Boerboels are strong and fearless dogs. From my finding this is clearly false advertising. We believe that no more than 20% of this breed would fit that description. The aim of this chapter is not to deter you from purchasing a Boerboel, but to inform you, that only by insisting on proven facts, you will be less likely to be disappointed if your dog which does not live up to the hype. It takes a tremendous amount of time and effort to train, both oneself, as well as the dog. When training is undertaken on a daily basis with dog-men, the feeling of disappointment is immense when frustrated by the performance of genetically unsound dogs. However, achieving the goals you both set out to train for is a priceless achievement providing for a great sense of satisfaction, and can only be achieved through selection of performance and health and through training and testing. There is no in-between or middle ground when testing a dog’s willingness to protect. It either does or does not. Full stop. THE BOERBOEL IS A DOG THAT IS SO PHENOTYPICALLY DIVERSE, THAT  IT IS NOT HARD TO UNDERSTAND THAT THE TEMPERMENT OF THIS BREED IS EQUALLY AS DIVERSE.