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1. Why did you choose the breed “Boxer “?
From the very beginning my mother liked the Boxer, mostly because of his overall athletic appearance and his typical head. Of course I never new different as I was born between and grew up amidst boxers.
2. From where the name “ Van Sapho’s Hoeve “?
“Sapho” was the name of the first boxer of my parents. “Hoeve” is the Flemish term for a small farmhouse. Our second kennel name” De La Finca Sapho” is a Spanish translation of the previous one.
3. Can you describe your first boxer?
“Sapho” was an underestimated good boxer female. Fawn without white markings in her face, good construction and good bone. She was closely line bred to”Witherford Hot Chestnut”. My parents still regret they didn’t get more out of this bitch, due to their limited knowledge of the breed at this early point in their breeding.
4. What was the motivation for starting breeding with this breed?
My grandfather (father of my mother) was a breeder of race horses and my mother grew up in the midst of the hectic world of horseracing. I guess it’s a matter of genes. As silly as it might seem: one of the hobbies of my father as a child and teenager was to set up breedingprograms for showbirds. He abandoned this as he went to the university. So it sounds logic that with the boxer female breeding was in the air...
In my case, I love to look at boxers and reflect on how we can preserve what we like and improve the weaker points … And then again: it’s probably in the genes.
5. What dogs of your kennel do you consider being the best ones?
My father’s choice: Managua, Loyd & Maybe VSH.
My mother went for Managua, Roy and Brahms VSH.
From the ones I do remember I did or do like a lot Thor, Roy, Night, Yaws, Brahms, Questa, Zippy and Zenobie VSH.
To my parents I said: choose three names. The moment I had to choose three names, I had problems. I didn’t expect it to be so difficult to choose only three.
6. Who did inspire you the most and who are you grateful for the help and manuals?
My parents are grateful to Mr. Rosenboom (After Tacha): he had a good knowledge of the older Belgian ( “van het Dennendaal”) and Dutch bloodlines (“Vom hause Germania, Van Dommeldal, Van worikben,…). Although he was sometimes inclined to favour his own breeding stock (which was excellent) he gave good advice on more than one occasion.
My parents always had a love/hate relationship with René lanoy (Del Trinidad). For three decades he ruled the Belgian boxer scene. Working closely with him in club matters, they realised a lot but also had their “fights”. He did - and still does - breed a lot of excellent dogs, along a very consistent idea. As a breeder he is very much in favour of the “liberal” idea: each breeder is individually responsible for the dogs he breeds and a breed club – or any other organisation, including politics – should have no power on individual breeding. My parents do share that belief very strongly and so do I. If I go to visit him we can talk hours on end about boxers, so much experience in one person! He knew several key-figures in the breed personally as well in Holland, France, Switzerland and Germany. It’s someone all young starting breeders should look up to.
As to manuals there are of course the books by Friederun Stockmann and Tomasi Bosi.
More recently there are a number of publications by H.Wachtel, Aldington and others on dog breeding in general, from a (population)genetic point of view – although I admit that this is my fathers cup of tea, not my mothers and not mine. Except for the Stockmann and Bosi books of course.
7. In your breeding programs I can see that you did not always use the known Champions and did find more in using old bloodlines. Can you explain why?
In breeding it is important to follow some bloodlines that you think that produce good stock. Sticking to these proven bloodlines allows you to conserve and develop one particular type of boxer you like. You will know the weak and the strong points in this bloodline and – with a good bit of luck - you will be able to control your breeding program. People who always go for the champions and don’t look to the bloodlines will occasionally have good dogs but they will have to be lucky most of the time. In this way it will be very difficult to control your own breeding”program” as there is nothing to hold on to. Not if things go well and certainly not if things go wrong.
And of course there is that other phenomenon: history is full of “Champions” but there are very few good producers. Becoming a champion and being a good producer are quite separate things. Especially in latter years that have seen an explosion of titles, resulting in a degradation of the notion “champion” itself. But that is a different story and it is not one that favours the breed.
8. What boxers do you consider the best of the ones you did see in al these years?
When I did ask my mother to go for a few names she just said “I can not give you a few names: I saw too many good boxers that it would not be fair to quote only a few names “.
My fathers’ choice:
Males: Bandelero, Quido van de Hoeverbos, Tenor de loermo, Zethos van Adeltrots, Vic vom Klosterbrunnen, Xeno vd Glockenbergen and Boss vom Bereler Ries (head).
Females: Kate from Diana’s home, Daniella D’Jandilla, Ketty delle Quattro Strade, Lacoste from Ellinghaus, Vivian van Sapho’s Hoeve
9. Name the boxers, who, in your opinion played a decisive role in the formation of the breed?
Many people know all the big names but the major turning point in de history of the breed was the introduction of Pat Withers “Witherford Hot Chestnut” (with his very close bred pedigree) on the continent by Karin Rezewski.
In the last twenty years it’s not the fact that a handful of top sires dominated the breed that is really important, but the fact that the old local bloodlines were all mixed into one “European” gene pool.
10. Describe your ideal boxer?
The ideal boxer should be a good mix of Elegance and Power. When he is standing natural you should be able to see an athlete: strong with good substance, dry muscles and still looking elegant, without being too small in bone. His construction needs to be square at all points, body and head.
11. Name the quality’s that are important in a boxer?
The boxer should be in the first place a good family dog, a good companion for the whole family. For that he should be healthy (this means a good construction) and have a good friendly, balanced and self-assured temperament.
12. What kind of problems where there when you began with boxers? What can be noted today? How did the boxer change in recent years?
There used to be the overall problem that very quickly you had too much the molosser, bulldog type. Too strong and too large heads and too low in front. Today the problems are more the contrary, lack of bone and too much elegance.The boxer today has lots more elegance and has in some bloodlines a very nice and special expression. Let’s see what that will give 10 years from now.
13. Do you pack this in your breeding concept?
For many years my parents have tried to preserve and/or create boxers of the same type. They didn’t jump on every new “trend”. We try – try! - to breed the strong, nice, good and elegant boxer, and introduce new characteristics only when we need them. Because of that we do not have the main problems that are all over.
Of course the boxer does change, but this does not mean we need to exaggerate. And there are lot exaggerations around. I think if we can stick to the level of boxers in the 80’s and 90’s, it would be a job well done.
14. What are your personal preferences Male or Female?
Females are always more important for the breed.
15. When do you evaluate your puppies?
The first moments after birth are most important: head type can very often be selected at that moment. Then afterwards it is important to observe their development. Another crucial point is when they start walking and playing properly. Construction can be assessed best at that moment.
16. Is the competition in the ring stronger with the females or with the males?
This really depends on the show, the place, the country, the amount and quality of entries. At this moment I would say that the fawn females are on very high level all over Europe but then again it is possible there are many good brindle females in Europe that are wonderful but never go to show because of different lifestyle. Who knows?
17. Do you think it’s good to use statistics to the best producers?
If they are the best producers they really will not need a statistic.
I do not like statistics because they are the first step to make rules of exclusion. In the end you have only a few males or females who are still “good” – according to the statistics, and many young breeders have a dangerous tendency to pay more attention to statistics rather than to the actual dogs. Statistics exclude unnecessary boxers and bloodlines.
If a dog does reproduce badly, believe me, very fast people will spread it around and it will be known. In our country we have no statistics, luckily.
18. How do you decide on a male for your breeding?
He simply needs to fit your female: ideally he needs to conserve the strong points of the bitch while improving her weaknesses.
For that it is very important to know the good and bad points of your own dog.
19. How will you respond to a call for a mating with your dog and you know that with this combination there will be for example eye problems?
First of all, you never know a problem will occur until the pups are born. In the vast majority: you can only guess. This certainly is the case if those instances you don’t know the bitch and/or her pedigree. With every mating done in my kennel I had the feeling one or the other problem could arise in the litter: I never think it is perfect. So when I would say” no” to the female because a possible fault could occur, I would need to say “no” to all females. Not because the combinations are bad but you only know if it was a good combination once the puppies are born.
And there is one other major point: the breeder – that’s the owner of the bitch – is the only one responsible for his choice. Nobody else.
So, in conclusion, any healthy and reasonably good bitch is welcome.
20. In many breeds there are good producers but not always breeders do use them. They continue using the normal average male. How can you forbid people to do that or do you think it’s impossible to control that.
We only can help the ones that want to be helped. If you start with a set of compulsory regulations and restrictions, you can be sure of an adverse effect because people will focus on what they can not do in stead of what they should do.
And yes: a consequence of this point of view is that people can choose to mate “average” with “average”.
The most important is that everybody does look to his own breeding and set his own priorities. In the end, the one who has good quality boxers will be the happier person in boxer world.
21. If you have a nice producer and a person says to you he did never see the dog, how do you react?
If he hasn’t seen him – for whatever reason – that’s a pity for him. I will be happy to present my dog and speak about his career and ask from where the interest comes for my dog. What he does with this information is his choice – there is nothing I can do.
22. I was interested in using frozen semen, and it seems to get more and more interesting and popular. What do you think about that?
For a long time we where against this, because we think you can find many good dogs all over Europe.
We still are reluctant but now we have frozen semen available from Brahms and Zippo. The reasons? One is, you never know what tomorrow will bring. Also, sometimes because of the (really) long travel distances females become stressed and as result the chance of having puppies gets smaller.Also we need to think about travelling; many times breeders do fanatic things to be able to use a male. A commitment we really do appreciate but on the other hand they sometimes do to dangerous things. Driving miles and miles without sleep. So sometimes it could be safer and more intelligent to use frozen semen.
Ok, there are good reasons – but we still prefer the old “natural way”. And don’t forget: with frozen semen, you loose all the bittersweet Boxer gossip! (Joking…)
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VAN SAPHOS HOEVE (Belgium) 