Boerboel Care Guide

A Boerboel's guarding instinct doesn't switch off between walks, so daily life is mostly a matter of steering it rather than suppressing it. A predictable household — consistent meals, handlers and rules — leaves the dog fewer things to flag as suspicious.

The most important daily habit is social exposure, and it is lifelong, not a puppy-class graduation. PetMD is explicit that training and socialization are critical here: a guardian that regularly meets varied people, dogs and situations learns to tell a normal event from a real one, while one kept isolated treats everything new as a threat. The other daily reality is physical. This is a dog that can outweigh the person on the other end of the leash, so plain manners — walking without towing, settling on cue, backing off a doorway — are safety equipment rather than polish, kept sharp in short daily sessions. And because a determined 150-to-200-pound dog defeats casual barriers, everyday management leans on a genuinely secure yard and on introducing guests on your own terms, not letting a stranger and a territorial giant meet cold at the threshold.

Two clocks govern a Boerboel's exercise, and mixing them up is how owners get it wrong.

The daily clock is about the mind as much as the body. This is a guardian bred to watch and assess, not a runner, so the aim is to occupy a working mind, not tire out an athlete. PetMD's shape for an adult is daily long walks or active play in a securely fenced yard. Meet it and the dog settles. Miss it and the failure is breed-specific — not a dog bouncing off the walls, but a large, under-occupied guardian that turns outward, working the fence line and adopting the street as its post. An under-worked Boerboel guards harder — the last thing you want to amplify in a 150-to-200-pound animal.

The second clock belongs to the skeleton, and runs to roughly 24 months (VCA). While the growth plates are still open they bear load poorly, so the fitter a puppy looks, the more you hold it back — let the joints' readiness, not the dog's enthusiasm, decide how far a young Boerboel goes.

No breed-wide prevalence study exists for the Boerboel — it is too uncommon to appear in the large primary-care datasets that carry real percentages for popular breeds — so the concerns below come from PetMD's veterinarian-written profile and the giant-breed veterinary literature. Read them as conditions to watch for, not as odds for your dog.

Eyelid faults (ectropion and entropion). PetMD names both for the Boerboel, and they are the concern most tied to the breed's heavy, loose-skinned face. Ectropion is the more characteristic: VCA Animal Hospitals describes the lower eyelid rolling outward or sagging away from the eye, and lists the Mastiff, Saint Bernard, Newfoundland, Bloodhound and Bernese Mountain Dog among predisposed breeds. The exposed surface dries out, a thick mucoid discharge gathers along the lid margin, and left alone it can progress to conjunctivitis, keratitis and corneal scarring that threatens sight (VCA). Entropion is the reverse fault — the lid turns inward and the lashes scrape the cornea. Both are corrected surgically once a dog is grown; treat a persistently weepy, red or squinting eye in a young Boerboel as a reason to see the vet early.

Hip and elbow dysplasia. PetMD lists both for the breed and notes they are hereditary but made worse by exercise habits, weight and nutrition. A dog carrying giant-breed load on its joints for a decade has little margin, so the levers that matter are keeping it lean and controlling growth (see Feeding). Ask the breeder for hip and elbow screening on both parents.

Bloat (gastric dilatation-volvulus). Deep-chested giants are the classic GDV patients, and PetMD flags the Boerboel by name. Cornell's Riney Canine Health Center describes the stomach filling with gas and twisting on itself, and it kills quickly. The signs Cornell lists — unproductive retching, a swelling and painful abdomen, drooling, restlessness, pale gums, weakness — are a same-hour emergency, not a wait-and-see. To lower the odds, Cornell advises two or more smaller meals a day, limiting activity right after eating, and avoiding raised bowls. A preventive gastropexy, which tacks the stomach to the body wall, drops the recurrence rate to as little as 3–5% against as high as 80% without it (Cornell) — worth raising with your vet, often at the spay or neuter.

Heart disease (dilated cardiomyopathy). PetMD includes DCM among the breed's concerns. Cornell describes it as the heart muscle weakening and the chamber enlarging until it can no longer pump efficiently; it is one of the more common heart diseases of large and giant breeds, though Cornell's named list of predisposed breeds does not single out the Boerboel. Early DCM is usually silent, which is why Cornell recommends screening for predisposed breeds — an echocardiogram and ECG can catch it before heart failure sets in, when coughing, laboured breathing, weakness and a distended belly appear. There is no cure, so finding it early is the point.

A note for intact females. If you keep an unspayed female, learn to recognise vaginal hyperplasia — an exaggerated swelling of vaginal tissue in response to estrogen during heat that can protrude through the vulva. The Merck Veterinary Manual reports it in as many as 8–10% of bitches and records no documented breed predisposition (brachycephalic breeds are overrepresented), so there is no Boerboel-specific figure to give. It usually resolves after the heat passes and is prevented outright by spaying.

This is general information, not a diagnosis. Always consult your veterinarian for medical decisions about your dog.