The Leonberger Book That is Copied from a Tibetan Mastiff Book

So, someone writes a generic dog book to promote a website and another dog book, the book they really want to sell, and then makes 61 copies of the generic book, make the titles breed specific, and adds a little bit of breed specific information, maybe from Wikipedia, to each of the 61 books, for dog breeds, mind you, that they probably never met. Voila! One example is this book, Leonberger (Divine Dogs Online) Paperback – August 14, 2016 by Mychelle Klose. Since the author forgot to remove references to Tibetan Mastiff’s we know what breed this book was copied from.

The paperback version of the book is 48 pages, ISBN 978-1537099552, item weight 3.68 ounces, dimensions 6 x 0.12 x 9 inches. You can buy it from Amazon, as a paperback, or e-Book. The paperback version is currently $12.98 on Amazon, and the Kindle version is $6.98.

Below I am posting my Amazon review of Leonberger (Divine Dogs Online) by Mychelle Klose. Click here to see my original Amazon review. BTW I gave the book two stars.

This book on Tibetan Mastiffs, I mean Leonbergers, has issues and contain errors.

Mychelle Klose has written at least 61 breed specific books about dog breeds that she obviously never owned. I believe this Leonberger book was based on her Tibetan Mastiff book since she sometimes refer to Tibetan Mastiffs instead of Leonbergers. In the book she is heavily promoting her website and another book “How to have a healthy dog”. I get the impression that this book was created for the purpose of promoting the “How to have a healthy dog” book and her website, which is printed on the front page and throughout the book.

The book is very generic, applicable to any dog breed, and it does not contain a lot of specific information about Leonbergers. but there is some. Unfortunately, that information is incorrect a little bit too often considering it only covers a few pages. She claims that Heinrich Essig, the creator of the Leonberger breed, was the mayor of the town of Leonberg. Heinrich Essig was a prominent citizen of the town, and he was a successful businessman, farmer, innkeeper, horse and dog trader, large-dog enthusiast, dog breeder, and town councilman, but he was never the mayor of Leonberg.

She claims that only five Leonbergers survived World War I. It is true that World War I was tough on the breed, but it was not quite that bad. After the war, Karl Stadelmann and Otto Josenhans, worked hard to save the breed, and they were able to find twenty-five Leonbergers whose owners were willing to cooperate in reestablishing the breed. Of these, only five were suitable for breeding. That’s where that info originates. However, that’s a little different from saying that only five Leonbergers survived.

She also claims that only eight Leonbergers survived World War II. However, that is once again an exaggeration. There was indeed a “genetic bottleneck” of Leonbergers in the 1940s. This was largely because people repeatedly bred the dogs they thought were the best specimens in a misguided attempt to improve the breed. Scientific pedigree analyses demonstrate that the Leonberger has twenty-two founder animals, or animal ancestors unrelated to one another (ten males and twelve females). Again, that is a little bit different from “only 8 survived”. I found other errors as well.

The book design could have been better. The text is sometimes left adjusted and sometimes centered and the chapter titles are sometimes by themselves on the page preceding the actual text. It quite frankly looks like a mess. In addition, the pages are not numbered.

I am giving the book two stars instead of one because of the color photos and the external links section at the end, which feature links to great Leonberger websites.

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Finally, if you would like to learn about more about my book and find out where to buy it, click here or here. You can also click the image below to buy it from Amazon.