1. i heard they drool. i was wondering if you could tell me on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the least and 10 being the worst how much they drool.
2. do they have a high prey drive? i have a cat and i dont want her to get hurt.
3. do they respond well to obedience training or do they tend to be more difficult.
4. do they instinctively guard or will they have to be trained?
5. do they have any genetic problems i should be aware of?
I've never owned one myself but my roommate did have one.. I think the drooling varies from dog to dog, but Wilson was about an 8.5 or 9.. It was really disgusting, I could never again live with a dog that drools like that..
He was fine with our cat and my Senegal parrot but he was 7 years old at the time and the cat hid a lot, and the parrot took a good piece out of his ear the one and only time he got too close for comfort.. He ignored the budgies completely and when the cat wasn't around he seemed indifferent.. But again, I stress, he was 7 years old, far from puppyhood, and had been raised with 2 very small dogs.
He was extremely obedient and my roommate says he was very easy to work with.
I've never met a dog (I used to work at petsmart, I've met tons of dogs) that wasn't instinctively protective. Remember you don't want to really encourage protectiveness too much or you'll end up with an aggressive dog. We adopted a dog a few weeks ago and he is already so protective of me he tries to lunge at anyone that takes a step in my direction. You don't want that, it's proving very difficult to train his over-protectiveness out of him..
I don't know much about boxer genetics, but Wilson had to be put down at almost 9 years old because he had gone blind, deaf, and could barely walk because of his hips.. They also think he may have been diabetic..
Hope this helps, sorry I can't give you more general info, but that's what one boxer was like, anyway..