Pet Breed Focus: The Leonberger

Whilst at the Dog Fun Day to handover my donated painting I saw various breeds of dogs from whippets and border collies, to Bernese Mountain dogs and lurchers. But by far the largest were a couple of Leonbergers - one still technically a pup. So that's the breed I'm going to take a look at:

Their name comes from the city of Leonberg in Germany where the breed is said to have been developed. The town has a lion as its crest and the Leonberger was bred in part to resemble a lion in stature.

They are a very large muscular breed with long rough double-coat of tawny fur and a black mask on face. They have a long relaxed tail and feathering of fur on the backs of legs and need a lot of brushing. Gender difference is particularly notable with males being far more muscular than females sometimes with  obvious 'mane'. The average height is around 70-75cm at withers (top of shoulders) and they weigh in at 50-65kg on average. long relaxed tail. feathering of fur at back of legs. They have a relaxed and self-assured temperament but socialisation is very important for good behaviour as the dog is so large you don't want it to become difficult to control. 

They are generally a healthy breed but have some health risks that come with larger breeds of dog such as bloat so should be fed 2 smaller meals in the day rather than a single large meal. Hip dysplasia is a problem for many large breeds but is largely controlled in Leonbergers. Lifespan, however, averages at just 7 years, this is not unusual for large dogs but is much less that the average breed of pedegree dog.

The breed is claimed to have been developed in 1830 by Heinrick Essig, mayor of Leonberg using a Newfoundland and and early St Bernard. later adding a Pyrenese mountain dog although this is somewhat disputed. Regardless the first registered dogs were in 1846 and become popular in European royal households. Traditionally the breed was also used as a farm dog for keeping watch as well as for draft work and later as a working dog used for search and rescue.

The modern breed saw the addition of more Newfoundland as the breed was devastated by the First World War with reportedly only 5 surviving. After some recovery it was again used in the Second World War to pull ammunition carts and was again dramatically reduced to just 8 individuals. The dark mask of the modern breed only came to be in the modern breed.