Napoleon had taught the dogs to hate Snowball,as well as because Snowball and Boxer both were given Animal Hero, First Class in the Battle of the Cowshed but Napoleon wasn’t. Thus they were a threat to his authority. Snowball was constantly disagreeing with him, and though Boxer was loyal, he was more loved on the farm than Napoleon.

Napoleon was probably planning to eliminate Boxer ever since he got the litter of puppies to train. He taught them to associate Snowball and Boxer with fear, but he hadn’t worked out how he could get rid of Boxer yet. He was afraid of losing support if he let Boxer defend himself against the dogs. Boxer probably would have been fine fighting them, but the animals would be confused on why Napoleon let his dogs attack him.

Boxer ended up digging his own grave by stubbornly trying to work with his collapsed lung and broken hoof. He basically handed Napoleon the opportunity to send him to the knacker on a silver platter. Napoleon ended up not needing the dogs to kill him.

Animal Farm Chapter-wise Summary