What are your favorite animals

It is easy for me to answer the daily prompt “What are your favorite animals?”, it is Canis Lupus Familiaris, or dogs of course, especially Leonberger dogs.

Daily writing prompt
What are your favorite animals?
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Our yellow Lab Baylor is sitting on the left. Our brown-black German Shepherd Baby is sitting on the right.
ur Labrador Baylor and German Shepherd Baby. They were both rescues.

Dogs are very social and often quite intelligent. They are loving, loyal, fun, innocent, playful and they can provide protection whether it is physically or just via their barking, which alerts us to the presence of strangers. Dogs provide companionship and encourage physical activity since you need to take them for walks and play with them.

Our Leonberger puppy is sitting and looking into the camera. He is wearing a scarf, and his tongue is sticking out.
A black and white photo of our Leonberger Bronco at three months old.
Bronco is lying in green grass. Our house and brick wall are in the background.
Our Leonberger Bronco is in the front yard.

Among dogs my favorite breed is the Leonberger. Leonbergers are confident and brave gentle giants. They are great with children, very social and good companions and they can also be guard dogs. They are not aggressive and were not bred for that purpose, but their size, strength, courage, protective nature and acute senses make it a natural role for them. Our Leonberger Bronco protected the entire neighborhood by chasing off a peeping Tom. Leonbergers are double-coated, and they have webbed paws, so they’re natural swimmers as well. They are sometimes used in water rescue operations. But be careful, they are big, full of energy, and can be rambunctious when they’re young.

Below are various photos of our dogs

Our pug Daisy is on the lawn on the left. Our Leonberger Bronco is standing on the right.
Our Leonberger Bronco and our Pug Daisy
Our daughter 9 years old is holding the paws of our Japanese Chin Ryu. Ryu is standing on his back legs, and it looks like he is laughing.
Our Japanese Chin Ryu with our daughter who was 9 years old at the time.
Our Japanese Chin Ryu is sitting on the wood floor.
Our Japanese Chin Ryu.
Our pug Daisy is lying on her back on the gravel. There is also a toy duck.
Our pug Daisy loved to sunbath even when it was hot. Here she is catching some rays while lying on our old backyard porch, which had gravel.
Rachel kneeling on the floor and petting our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo who is on the left as well as our pug Daisy who is on the right.
Our daughter with our pug Daisy and our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo.
There is text above the wolf on the left that says “Canis Lupus, the grey wolf is a fearsome and courageous hunter in nature.”. There is a text above Rollo on the right that says “Canis Lupus familiaris, the dog, a close relative of the grey wolf, is sometimes less brave. This specimen prefers to sit in a stroller when he hears strange sounds.”
A gray wolf on the left. Our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo sitting in a stroller on the right. Whenever there was a sound that scared him, such as quacking ducks, or someone banging on something, he wanted to sit in Daisy’s stroller.
Our Leonberger Bronco is lying on the floor. Our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo is lying on his side wanting to be petted.
Our Leonberger Bronco and our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo.

All official dog breeds have a breed standard. If you want to show your dog your dog has to closely match the breed standard. Below is the breed standard for the Leonberger.

The physical breed standard for the Leonberger. There is also one for character/behavior. The AKC / the USA has its own breed standard for the Leonberger but it closely resembles the international one.

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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.

43 thoughts on “What are your favorite animals”

    1. Thank you Robbie. I hope we will get another Leonberger but Rollo does not accept any new dogs in the house. His behavior has improved but he still not accepting of dogs in the house. So we are going to have to wait.

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  10. As a fellow dog lover, I appreciated this question and seeing more photos of your pooches. One of the more fascinating elements of dogs is their social interaction and how they manage or don’t manage to get along with others.

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    1. I agree, how they manage social interaction is amazing, especially that between dogs and humans. I read that in general animals feel less comfortable around people than their own species even though they’ve spent a lot of time with people. However, with dogs it is not that way. They feel more comfortable around people than with other dogs. They are also the only animals that will cooperate if you put them in an MRI machine.

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    1. Thank you. I am fine Carfax. I hope you are fine too, It is great that you love all animals and have a rabbit and three cats. I probably would have loved cats too if I weren’t allergic. Have a nice weekend you too.

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  13. A great post. I have owned dogs, cats, and turtles and have loved them all for different reasons. It’s hard for me to say which I have loved the most. That said, I’ve probably felt the most kinship with the cats I’ve owned. They’ve been smart and also fiercely loyal to our children. In particular, I remember our cat Merlin watching over our oldest child right when we brought her home from the hospital. He cared about her greatly.

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    1. Thank you so much David. I probably would have loved cats just as much as dogs, maybe more, if I hadn’t been allergic to them. I can’t have cats. Claudia and I used to have a cat but we had to give it to someone else because after 2-3 weeks my lungs were about to shut down. It was like having pneumonia (which I’ve had too). The story about Merlin is beautiful and shows that it is not just dogs that can do that.

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  14. I’m really a cat person, and lived with several different cats over 30+ years, but since 2014 we have had a Newfoundland dog named Nelly as part of the household. She is 10 years old now, and somewhat lame, but I have to give her credit for developing my appreciation of dogs.

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    1. I probably would have loved cats if it weren’t for the fact that I’m allergic to them. I love Newfoundland dogs too and they have a lot in common with Leonbergers. Leonbergers are a little bit more lively but Leonbergers are getting their love for swimming from Newfoundland dogs (they were bred interchangeably with each other).

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  15. Charlee: “We all got together and asked our Dada this.”
    Chaplin: “First he looked at us cats.”
    Lulu: “Then he looked at us dogs.”
    Java Bean: “Then he muttered something about no-win scenarios and left when he thought we weren’t looking.”
    Oona: “Oona will go jump on his head and bite his ear later to punish him for his cowardice.”

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