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 19th century. Considering there are around 30,000 Leonbergers in the world, that’s impressive.

Screenshot of the Worldwide Independent Leonberger Database.
Click on the image to go to the Worldwide Independent Leonberger Database.

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.

Screenshot of the search feature of the Worldwide Independent Leonberger Database.
Click on the image to go to the Worldwide Independent Leonberger Database.

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
A screenshot of Bronco's database entry. He is named "Lets Do Le Bronco von der Lowenhohle". The "Lets Do" is not supposed to be there.
Database entry for “Lets do Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle”. The “Lets Do” part was because someone interpreted my wife too literally. She meant it to be “Le Bronco” not “Lets Do Le Bronco”. Click on the image to go to Bronco’s entry.

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.

Screenshot of the database entry after I got it corrected. Now the “Lets Do” is back again.
Database entry after I got it corrected. Now the “Lets Do” is back 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.

Screenshot of Bronco's database entry including a list of his siblings.
Bronco’s four twin-siblings, the name of his mother and father.
Screenshot of Bronco's mother's database entry
Information on Bronco’s mother
Screenshot of Bronco’s father dataentry
Information on Bronco’s father
Screenshot of Bronco's father's offspring
I guess Bronco was the runt of his litter
Screenshot of the data entry of Bronco's ancestor 15 generations back.
Going back 15 generations. Bronco’s grandpa’s grandpa’s grandpa’s grandpa’s grandpa’s grandpa’s grandpa’s grandpa’s grandpa’s grandpa’s grandpa’s grandpa’s grandpa’s grandpa’s father.
Old black and white photo of Bronco’s ancestor 15 generations back.
Close up of Bronco’s ancestor 15 generations back.

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

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

29 thoughts on “Bronco And the Worldwide Independent Leonberger Database”

    1. Thank you Anjali. Yes imagine our surprise. We had to add something with an ‘L’ to Bronco and my wife thinks a “Le” would do as “the” in French. She grew up in France. She says “Let’s do Le Bronco” and two weeks later his birth certificate from the Leonberger Club of America arrives and his name is “Lets Do Le Bronco ….”. I had it corrected in the database a few years ago, but now it’s back. I guess because you can’t change the original birth certificate and a refresh of the database could do that.

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    2. Yes about Bronco’s name. It’s like one of those Facebook memes, someone asking for a birthday cake with “Happy birthday in red” and instead of writing with red icing they write all four words “Happy birthday in red” using blue icing. It was a source of lot of jokes among our friends. But I am going to try to have fixed again and see if it stays this time.

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    1. Yes it was great that they created the database. Luckily the Leonberger breeders had kept almost perfect records throughout history and since this database was started (2005) they certainly have kept perfect records. Leonbergers have much better ancestry trees than people.

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    1. Thank you so much Denise. Yes you are right, it is more than 100 years ago. I also found a picture of an ancestor to Bronco from 1901 on this database but it was not a direct lineage along the fathers like this one.

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