Some Background . . .
The first dogs registered as Leonbergers were born in 1846.
That is more than 10 years before the first dog show society came into existence in England in 1859.
And nearly 30 years before the establishment of the Kennel Club in 1873.
As far as pedigree breeds go, the Leonberger is an old one.
The true origins of the breed are not known because Heinrich Essig, who is credited with its foundation, kept no clear records. It is most likely the true origins are much older. We do know Essig, who was a prolific breeder of large dogs, came from Leonberg which was a well-known market town where both horses and large dogs were traded since the middle ages.
Following the First World War, it has been suggested that only five dogs of the true Leonberger type were identified as suitable for breeding. Similarly, only 17 inbred dogs were registered in 1946, following the Second World War.
The broad use of popular sires over the years means that there are no separate national populations, all modern lines across the world are for the most part closely related.
Take a moment and study these graphs showing the population size of the Leonberger breed between the years 1920–2016.
That is more than 10 years before the first dog show society came into existence in England in 1859.
And nearly 30 years before the establishment of the Kennel Club in 1873.
As far as pedigree breeds go, the Leonberger is an old one.
The true origins of the breed are not known because Heinrich Essig, who is credited with its foundation, kept no clear records. It is most likely the true origins are much older. We do know Essig, who was a prolific breeder of large dogs, came from Leonberg which was a well-known market town where both horses and large dogs were traded since the middle ages.
Following the First World War, it has been suggested that only five dogs of the true Leonberger type were identified as suitable for breeding. Similarly, only 17 inbred dogs were registered in 1946, following the Second World War.
The broad use of popular sires over the years means that there are no separate national populations, all modern lines across the world are for the most part closely related.
Take a moment and study these graphs showing the population size of the Leonberger breed between the years 1920–2016.
- The graph on the left shows the increasing population size from 1920 to 1978 and the apparent bottleneck around 1946.
- The blue, yellow, and green lines represent the number of breeding males, breeding females, and puppies they produced per year, respectively.
- The red dashed line represents the number of expected parent pairs for the given number of born puppies per year, assuming the average litter size of 6.5 puppies.
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- This graph on the right shows the continuously increasing population from 1979 to 2016.
- In the 1970s, the number of dogs born started to increase rapidly whereas the number of breeding males used started to decrease.
- Note that the number of dams is as expected but the number of sires constantly decreases to about half of that of the dams in recent years, illustrating the popular/matador sire syndrome.