Aug 29 (edited) • Breed of the Week
Leonberger
Thank you for your patience. I made sure to have this be the first thing, after all of the dogs were walked and taken care of, that I did this morning. I hope you enjoy what I found.
The Leonberger is a German breed that was originally fashioned by a man named Heinrich Essig in the German town of Leonberg. It is believed that the Leonberger was bred to resemble the lion in the town’s coat of arms. At this time large and imposing breeds were common and especially those with light or white coats.
Starting in the 1830s Essig began to develop the Leonberger by crossing a Landseer Newfoundland and a Saint Bernard for four generations then crossed that mix with a Pyrenean wolfhound which does not actually exist apparently. It is possible that the Pyrenean wolfhound is in fact either a Great Pyrenees or a Pyrenean mastiff. You can imagine that with all of these mixes of bi colored breeds that the Leonberger of yesterday do not look like the ones of today. They were multicolored dominantly white and with no black mask. One thing that has remained the same is their friendly, loving a great cohabiting temperament whether that be with children or other animals.
A breed standard was not established until Essig died in 1889 since he never came up with one himself. It was his nephew that is responsible for breeding Leonberger’s to consistently produce the tawny coats and black masks that defines their look today. I would say that is more lion like than multicolored or white.
In 1891 the first Leonberger clubs were founded and an early club president by the name of Albert Kull wrote the first standard for the breed. Kull’s effort established much credibility for the breed and with that the Leonberger thrived.
Much like some of the other breeds we have discussed WWI and WWII took a massive toll on the Leonberger numbers and they almost went extinct.
For WWI it is thanks to two men, Karl Stadelmann and Otto Josenhans, that the Leonberger did not become a memory. After the war the two men swept Germany in search of any Leonbergers left and found 25. Out of these 25 only 5 were suitable to breed. Due to financial and food hardships supporting a breeding program was not likely at this time. Thankfully a group of seven people came together to form a breeding cooperative. This proved to be successful because within four years their organized breeding programs selectively bred 350 Leonbergers. This brought about the official establishment of the Breed Registry and they also provided foundation stock to other kennels.
During WWII the Third Reich assumed control of all German breed registries and a Reich-governed Leonberger club was established. This did not stop “unofficial” breeding in the area though. Thankfully both dogs and accurate records survived and the current German Leonberger Club was formed in 1948. Eighteen national clubs, including the Leonberger Club of America, meet annually in Leonberg to preserve and protect the breed.
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Leonberger
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