Bronco And the Worldwide Independent Leonberger Database

One amazing aspect of owning a Leonberger is that there is a database where you can lookup information on your Leonberger including his siblings and ancestry. It is called the Worldwide Independent Leonberger Database. It currently contains 166,000 entries that lived as far back as the 19^th century. Considering there are around 30,000 Leonbergers in the world, that’s impressive.

The database is updated weekly and free to use. It serves mostly as a tool for breeders and researchers, but it is quite interesting for anyone to browse. It was established in 2005 as a nonprofit organization and is managed and owned by Wilma and Ben Kroon, breeders who live in the Netherlands. Like any database, it is fully searchable. Search criteria include the name (or portion of a name), registration number, date of birth, and chip number. You can search in English, German, and French. The website also features informative articles about the data that’s collected. Note that some of Bronco’s information is missing because he was not used for breeding.

For each Leonberger, the database contains the following information.

• Full name
• A photograph if available
• Registration number
• Tattoo and/or microchip number
• DNA profile number
• Date and place of birth
• Kennel name
• Website of breeder
• Website of owner
• Export registration number
• Mean kinship (a measure of genetic diversity)
• Indicators of hip dysplasia (abbreviated as HD) and elbow dysplasia (abbreviated as ED)
• Eye test dates and results
• Indicators of hypothyroidism
• Results of DNA tests for the genes LPN1, LPN2, LPPN3, and LEMP
• Number of offspring
• Coefficient of inbreeding for ten generations and all generations

About “Lets do Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle” that’s not his real name. His real name is “Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle”. What happened was that we named him “Bronco” and we were told that his name had to start with an ‘L’. So, my wife Claudia said, “Let’s do Le Bronco” intending his name to be “Le Bronco”. When we received his certificate, it said “Lets do Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle”, which also starts with an ‘L’ but not what we intended. I got this fixed in the database as you can see below. However, for whatever reason the “Lets Do” crept back in again.

I am going to contact the database administrators to take the “Lets Do” back out. Do you think I will be able to succeed?

With the help of the database, I was able to trace Bronco’s lineage all the way back to 1901, and I found photographs of and other information about several of his ancestors as far back as 1904. However, below  I am including screenshots showing the names of his immediate siblings (twins), his mother and father and a direct ancestor (grand-pa’s grand-pa etc.) 15 generations back.

You can also read about the Worldwide Independent Leonberger Database here.

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Finally, if you would like to learn 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. All royalties are donated to the Leonberger Health Foundation International.