The Fantastic Account of
Dr Bruce Cattanach’s
Bobtail Boxers
by Virginia Zurflieh
You know the old saying - everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. Earlier this year, there was a storm brewing in the boxer fancies of both Europe and America with the imminent prospect of a law against tail-docking in Germany and England and a vote to allow uncropped boxers in the showring without penalty in the U.S. (which some fanciers believed would lead to a ban here on both cropping and docking). Everybody in boxers was talking about the supposed esthetic and health benefits (or not) of cropped ears and docked tails, and how awful it would be if we had to look at long-tailed boxers in the ring, nevermind live with them. Several fanciers even said they'd switch to another breed before they'd try to get used to a boxer with a tail.
Then Dr. Bruce Cattanach did something about it: he reinvented the boxer...with a naturally docked tail! What’s more, the Kennel Club in England (equivalent to our AKC) has just accepted the fourth generation of Dr. Cattanach’s bob-tails for registration, AS PUREBRED BOXERS!!
The "Reinventor’s" Qualifications
Dr. Cattanach is uniquely qualified to carry out this experiment. He has been a noted breeder/exhibitor of boxers in England since 1949 under the Steynmere prefix, and is a geneticist by profession, with a specialty in the cause and analysis of genetic defects. Until his recent "semi-retirement," Dr. C. was Director of the Medical Research Council Mammalian Genetics Unit in the UK. He also worked in the USA in the 1960s, and in fact, took a Cherokee Oaks bitch back to the UK to found his current Steynmere breeding program when he returned to England in 1969. Dr. C. was instrumental in eradicating the crippling, hereditary, neurological disease, Progressive Axonopathy, from the British boxer in the 1980s, and is currently working to lessen the very widespread incidence of SAS in British bloodlines. Before embarking on the bob-tail experiment, Dr. Cattanach informed the (British) Kennel Club of his plans well in advance, kept detailed records, and backed up his research with DNA analysis of all the participants. Since the KC, like the AKC, is a very conservative organization, it was doubtless Dr. C.’s pre-planning, scientific methods, and detailed records that led to their acceptance of the fourth generation of his bob-tails for registration as purebred boxers.
The Reinvention Process
Below, in chronological order, is a photographic record of the ongoing results of the bob-tail experiment started by Dr. Cattanach in 1992 in anticipation of a docking ban in Britain, where ear-cropping has already been forbidden for many years. According to the summary at the top of page 4 in the August 28, 1998 Dog World, "A principal objective was to see if, through a series of backcrosses [to purebred boxers], the Corgi bob-tail gene could be transferred into the Boxer."
The experiment began with the crossing of one of Dr. Cattanach’s boxer bitches to a Pembroke Corgi with a dominently inherited bob-tail, Vaquera of Pemwell. Neither the boxer foundation bitch nor the corgi are pictured here.
Figure 1: one of two first generation bitches used for breeding, "Dolly," was the result of the original boxer/corgi cross. Dr. Cattanach noted that all the first generation pups were corgi-like in build.
Figure 2: the purebred boxer, Steynmere Foreign Service, that was mated to Dolly to produce...
Figure 3: the second generation crossbred, "Jane." Clearly, Jane, though white, looks like a boxer, with long legs, a short coat, and a natural bob-tail!
Figures 4a, 4b, & 4c: the third generation, at ten months. Since Jane was white and lacking in head, Dr. Cattanach bred her to a male that was very typey and completely plain, Boxella’s Chief at Zenmaxkay - of Dutch/German breeding - to produce...
Figure 4a: "Big brindle male, George, with excellent head and mouth, and precision front. A bob-tailed dog of show quality."
