[Laila63139]

I heard about Laila's breeder through a coworker, who had heard about him through a client of ours. I never had a boxer myself, but was in love with the breed; because some of my relatives had boxers and I fell in love with their dogs. As I sit here and read the other stories with tears in my eyes, I pray that I am not reading my baby's story. So far I feel fortunate.

When bf and I felt ready to add a puppy to our home, I gave this breeder a call. It was the 4th of July weekend last year and he said he would have a litter ready to adopt the next week, so we got directions and made an appointment for the following weekend to come and see the puppies.

We were excited as we drove about an hour from where we live, and as we pulled into the drive we were greeted by the sire; a beautiful flashy fawn named Rocky. The owner then pointed to the pen where the puppies were, took the sire inside and let the dam (Molly, a beautiful fawn boxer) out to see us. They were 6 weeks old and the breeder said they had been weaned for about a week. While I was playing with the puppies bf was watching us and picked out Laila based on her demeanor with me and her littermates. He was also talking to the breeder about the questions I made sure he would ask.... He had all the right answers.

So bf selected Laila, we paid the guy and off we went. Breeder gave us the immunization record and completed AKC application along with her. On the way home I noticed the dam's name on the application wasn't Molly but I dismissed my concern to the fact that many people don't call their dogs by the AKC name.

Anyhow, a few weeks later (if interested you can find the thread in BW Breed Standard forum under "muzzle puzzle") bf noticed that her snout was long. We waited a while to see if she would "grow-into" her face but as time went on, people were asking what breed our beautiful girl was. When we said that she was a boxer puppy we would get strange looks. She is also relatively small for a boxer (38 pounds at 1 year old)

Out of curiosity about a month ago I sent in Laila's AKC application, and ordered her pedigree. When the pedigree came back, my fears are now confirmed; the dam in her pedigree is BRINDLE. The breeder had swindled us. Laila's litter did not come from the beautiful boxers we met. Rocky was probably the sire on the application, the name and description matched. Judging from her behavior when we met her Molly was obviously was the mother of the litter, but was likely impregnated by another breed. Further, the owner of the litter on the AKC application was not the owner of the dam, it was the owner of the sire, so technically we have no idea who the mother is at this point.

Moral of the story; BYB'rs are shady. Even though bf and I had the best intentions and asked the right questions, that doesn't guarantee that we'll get an honest answer. Stupid on our part, shady on his part.. I just pray now that she has a happy, healthy life. So far, so good. But she's still young and we will always be wondering. Of course, the damage is already done and we're keeping her.. But if we had known better to select a breeder that had a waiting list her future may be more certain.