JulieM
Boxer Insane
I agree with pretty much everything said here. 
As far as starting with a dog, and getting a foundation bitch from him - it's not uncommon. It's often easier for a novice to obtain a really good quality dog than it is a really good quality bitch. Getting the dog bred is sometimes difficult - though as you've noted, specialing can get him "out there" (if you have the considerable funds it takes!). However, often the dog's breeder will want to use him on one of their bitches, or will recommend him to someone who has a bitch from them, and you can opt for a second pick puppy from one of those breedings.
Regarding websites and flashy bitches available to show homes; there are still some breeders who automatically relegate plains to pet status. Plains are much more accepted these days than they were even five years ago, but it's still more difficult to finish a plain Boxer (though easier with a fawn than a brindle, and easier with a bitch than a dog - so your best bet there would be a plain fawn bitch ). I'll repeat, though - choose the best bitch regardless of color.
As far as starting with a dog, and getting a foundation bitch from him - it's not uncommon. It's often easier for a novice to obtain a really good quality dog than it is a really good quality bitch. Getting the dog bred is sometimes difficult - though as you've noted, specialing can get him "out there" (if you have the considerable funds it takes!). However, often the dog's breeder will want to use him on one of their bitches, or will recommend him to someone who has a bitch from them, and you can opt for a second pick puppy from one of those breedings.
Regarding websites and flashy bitches available to show homes; there are still some breeders who automatically relegate plains to pet status. Plains are much more accepted these days than they were even five years ago, but it's still more difficult to finish a plain Boxer (though easier with a fawn than a brindle, and easier with a bitch than a dog - so your best bet there would be a plain fawn bitch
). I'll repeat, though - choose the best bitch regardless of color.
) Anyways.. we may have opted for the screwy way to do things. For our 2nd pup, we were determined to get a girl w/ good show potential. We wanted to finish her, and if she passed all necessary health tests, breed her, and start our kennel from there. Lucky for us, in Nikki's litter, there were 6 girls for us to choose from. The "pick" was a boy, but our breeder would not let us have a boy, since we already had one.. so the pick of the girls was an equally beautiful PLAIN fawn bitch. OOH the dilema.. we had our hearts set on a flashy brindle girl.. and from the day we met Nikki (@ 5wks) we were in love. Nikki had a great body, real short back, good tail set, decent head, but her bite was lacking. We went w/ our heart, and took Nikki home anyways.. 