This article was originally published in Showsight Magazine, February 2014 issue.
In 1846, Heinrich Essig, a dogloving entrepreneur beamed as he observed a wriggling litter of newborn puppies. That day, after years of trying, he was witnessing the realization of a dream—the birth of his own dog breed. He named his breed the Leonberger, in honor of Leonberg, Germany, his hometown.
The genetic stew that produced Essig’s desired traits came from breeding and inter-breeding a Barry-type dog from the Hospice of Saint Bernard, a Landseer Newfoundland, and a wolfhound of undetermined parentage. There is evidence that early Leos also had more than a dash of genetic material from the butcher dogs residing in the neighboring town of Rottweil.
Essig was a visionary who was always a bit ahead of his time. He succeeded in intentionally producing the first dog breed specifically designed to be a luxury commodity. Furthermore, he achieved this goal a full decade before the Victorians ushered in the modern age of purposeful dog breeding.
Throughout Essig’s life, Leonbergers were status symbols, commanding high prices and shipped world-wide. They graced the palaces of Empress Elizabeth of Austria, King Umberto of Italy, Garibaldi, and Richard Wagner. In the 1880s, Buffalo Bill Cody tried unsuccessfully to buy a pair from an American actress for $5,000.00.
As a self-made man, Essig felt constrained by the rules of the Victorian dog fancy, and refused to write a breed standard or provide pedigrees. His stubbornness alienated the nineteenth-century dog world. After his death, the Leonberger almost disappeared, but a handful of ardent admirers resurrected the floundering breed.
In creating a luxury dog for the wealthy, Essig inadvertently created an ideal canine companion breed known for its versatility and compelling adaptability to human interests and lifestyles. His Leonbergers were intelligent and elegant enough to please the most discriminating buyers. They were hardy enough to withstand long overland and ocean journeys, and they could flourish in a wide variety of households.
Leonbergers have friendly, lively spirits tempered by calm, inclusive and tolerant dispositions. They are gentle with other animals, loving with children, loyal to their adults and willing to try almost any activity.
The power of the Leonberger’s appeal as an ideal companion helped it to survive the ravages of World War I. During that time every Leonberger in Leonberg starved to death or was killed, and those in the rest of the world were brought to the very edge of extinction.
After the War, the breed was resurrected by two residents of Leonberg—Otto Josenhans and Karl Stadelman. In early 1922, using their knowledge of Essig’s dogs and a Leonberger Standard written by Albert Kull shortly after Essig’s death, they located and selectively bred seven dogs with Leonberger-like traits. From these they carefully rebuilt the breed. Today’s Leonberger comes directly from their work. The club they founded and the stud book they wrote are still in existence today.
Unlike many dogs in Germany, the Leonberger survived the Second World War relatively well. Although the National Socialist party replaced the club leadership and rewrote the standard, the breed was protected by its German heritage. After the War, the Third Reich breed standard was replaced. Pre-war institutions were re-established, and breeding programs on both sides of the Iron Curtain helped the post-war breed to flourish.
Today, approximately forty thousand Leonbergers live mostly in Europe. Their numbers are growing in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. They live contentedly with single persons or in large households bustling with children. They are happy in apartments in midtown Manhattan, sandy beaches, or in Arctic snow.
Today’s Leonbergers are not distinguished by striking colors, flowing tresses, or unusually shaped bodies. They aren’t warriors, pointers or retrievers. They don’t yearn for rhinestone collars, as they are natural-looking, weather-proof, wash and wear dogs. Their lack of extreme or conspicuous traits, however, is in itself striking. Except for their size and the eager enthusiasm of their people, Leonbergers are notable for their lack of extremes in both form and function.
So what makes Leonbergers so desirable? The secret lies in their very moderation. It’s no surprise that the dog in Sidney Harris’s famous cartoon is a bit of a Leonberger look-alike.
Although many canine encyclopedias group the Leonberger with the giant breeds, nowhere in the official standards of the world’s major kennel clubs is the Leonberger referred to as a giant. In fact, the standards emphasize that the Leonberger is large but not ponderous. Excessive height is undesirable. Is moderation the magic? Perhaps the very lack of exceptional traits create an exceptional breed capable of capturing hearts and changing lives.
As models of moderation, no Leonberger trait or instinct is so highly developed as to thrust Leos into the realm of the elite levels of any canine sport or working event. They have to work much harder to excel than most of their competitors.
Leonbergers may not have been bred for sport, but there is no doubt they are good sports. When Leonberger people decide to pursue a canine work or sporting activity, their dogs are right alongside them giving their all with customary enthusiasm, willingness and a bit of goofiness thrown in for good measure. All that matters to most Leonbergers is that they are included in the fun.
Although Leos were not bred for any specific working task, the FCI and the AKC classify Leonbergers as working dogs. In America, however, Leonbergers live up to that label. They have earned titles in Agility, Obedience, Drafting, Dock Jumping, Flyball, Rally, and water work.
Leos especially enjoy drafting. Several Leonbergers help their families by hauling 40-pound sacks of their own kibble from their cars to their homes, or by carting their family’s recycling to the road for pick-up. They also willingly share the load on backpacking and mountain climbing trips.
Where working Leonbergers truly and naturally shine is in all aspects of Animal Assisted Therapy. Leonbergers throughout the world, and especially in North America, provide support and a healing presence in schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and shelters. At least fifteen percent of North American Leonbergers participate in animal-assisted therapy. Many have received the coveted LCA Therapy Award demonstrating that they have provided over 50 hours of service in medical or educational facilities.
While Leonbergers were proving themselves to be exceptional health providers, Leonberger people, especially in America, were responding in turn.
Eight Leonberger pioneers united in the 1980s and founded the independent Leonberger Club of America (LCA), with its own Registry, and the ability to enforce the most stringent breeding regulations on the continent. For over two decades, they carefully grew the breed to number approximately 3000 ideal companions.
LCA members are especially diligent about retaining breed health. When genetic mutations causing Addison’s Disease and Leonberger Polyneuropathy (LPN) crept into the breed, they eliminated the former by selective controlled breeding. Now, as the Leonberger Parent Club within the AKC, the LCA works closely with America’s Leonberger Health Foundation and the Canine Health Foundation to eliminate both LPN and the cancers that are the major killers of so many dogs. Since 2000, Leonberger owners through the Foundation have raised and distributed over $250,000.00 for canine research.
One hundred-sixty years of effort on the part of dedicated, passionate breeders and owners has fashioned one of the world’s healthiest, happiest, and most companionable of breeds.
