25 Silly Leonbergers

This is another post with the “25 Leonberger photos” theme. This time the theme is “25 silly Leonbergers”. The post feature Leonbergers looking silly or being in funny situations. A lot of the photos are of our late Leonberger Bronco but there are also Leonberger photos provided by friends as well as a couple of Leonberger stock photos. Below is a list of the previous posts using the theme 25 Leonberger photos.

Also if you have not checked out my new superfactful blog feel free to do so.

25 Silly Leonbergers

The first photos are not really silly, but they are photos of Leonberger puppies and they are cute and act silly. The first photo is of our Leonberger puppy at three months old. It was a chore to get him to sit still.

A photo of a Leonberger puppy wearing a red scarf.
This is a photo of our Leonberger Bronco when he was three months old.
Two sand colored Leonberger puppies playing in the snow. The play seems to be a little bit rough. Like all Leonbergers they have a black facemask.
Two light colored Leonberger puppies playing. My guess is that they are three months old. Shutterstock-ID: 2141564415 by AnetaZabranska.
Leonberger puppy giving a Chihuahua kiss, but the Chihuahua does not look happy. The Leonberger puppy is much bigger than the Chihuahua.
The silly Leonberger puppy is kissing a chihuahua who is getting annoyed. Stock Photo ID: 2166660069 by cynoclub.
A black-brown German Shephard is playing with a young Leonberger lying on his back.
Baby our German Shepherd is playing with our four months old Leonberger Bronco. Baby loved Bronco as if it was her own puppy. They were playing all day long. Silly dogs.
A young gangly Leonberger with a bandage on his knee is next to a little Chihuahua. The two owners of the little dog are a lady in blue jeans and a lady in white pants. The lady with white pants is also wearing a bandage on her knee.
Our Leonberger Bronco at the White Rock Lake dog park at about five/six months old. He is wearing a bandage on his knee because at the time he had a condition from growing too fast. He had fun playing with the little dog. The two ladies are the owners of the little dog. As you can see one of them has an issue with her knee, just like Bronco.
Our Leonberger is standing on a red leather sofa stretching to give me a hug. I am standing behind the sofa.
Our one-year-old Leonberger Bronco wants to give me a hug. He wanted to give hugs all the time. We also danced a lot. He was a good dancer and a silly Leonberger.
Claudia my wife sitting in a red sofa with our very big dog in her lap.
Our Leonberger Bronco is sitting in my wife’s lap. He was 167 pounds at the time. Silly Bronco thought he was a lap dog.

A Leonberger in Action Illustrated

For a couple of weeks there was a peeping Tom who trespassed on our property and sat outside our bedroom window shouting obscenities and threats primarily at my wife. As it turned out the peeping Tom was doing the same thing to a lot of other women in the neighborhood. He had been quite busy looking through bedroom windows at night.

The police were not able to do anything about it, so I hired private detectives. The plan was that they were going to catch him in the act and turn him into the police. They sat in our backyard behind the bushes with a whole bunch of instruments, cameras, recording devices, and metal detectors. They also hid in a dark car parked nearby our house. My father-in-law was surprised that I was able to find the detectives. He did not think people like them existed and he asked me “how did you find them?”. I found them in the phone book (phone books still existed back then). They reminded us of the Ghost Busters with their enthusiasm, dress, and all their instruments.

Unfortunately, Ghost Busters, I mean the detectives did not catch the peeping Tom, so I had to let them go. However, that’s when Bronco stepped in. One night we heard a shuffling outside the house, and I sent Bronco out to chase him. It worked. The peeping Tom was really frightened, and he never came back. Bronco probably just wanted to say hello and lick him, but the peeping Tom did not know that. Bronco saved the entire neighborhood. Well Bronco was not the one who was silly this time, but everyone else was including the detectives.

Brown big dog chasing a man running.
Bronco is chasing off a peeping Tom who was terrorizing the women in the neighborhood including my wife. Illustration by Naomi Rosenblatt.

Back when Bronco our Leonberger was young, the kids had pet hamsters—Moldova and Montenegro. The hamsters escaped from their cages sometimes, but Bronco usually helped us find them whenever they did. Claudia would tell him, “Bronco, find the hamsters,” and he would go around the house sniffing until he found them. One time he found them in the linen closet; another time he found them on a shelf in the living room.

On one occasion, a friend of David trusted us with his two hamsters while he and his family went on vacation. A couple of days later, Claudia noticed that the two hamsters were missing from their cage. The next thing she noticed was that Bronco’s cheeks looked puffy, so she said, “Bronco, drop it!” Out came the two hamsters, both unconscious.

In a panic, Claudia started performing CPR on the unconscious hamsters. She put one hamster at a time in her hand and gently compressed each tiny chest using the finger of the other hand. Fortunately, one hamster revived right away. The CPR didn’t seem to be working on the other hamster, but Claudia put both of them back in their cage, and soon the second hamster also woke up. We decided to keep the incident to ourselves. Hamsters don’t squeal. In this case I think Bronco was silly, even though he might have been a hero.

Leonberger with puffy cheeks.
Bronco’s puffy cheeks hold two hamsters he probably was trying to save. Illustration by Naomi Rosenblatt.

On yet another occasion Bronco was really silly. He had a toe amputation, and we were instructed to keep him inside for ten days and keep him as still as possible. We were to make sure he wouldn’t bump the cast. This was, of course, almost impossible to do, but we were going to try.

However, Bronco really wanted to go out, which he showed us in various ways, such as scratching at the front door. After a week or so, Claudia suggested that we take him outside a little bit, just in our driveway. I agreed. When I handed her the leash, she said, “He can barely walk; do you think he’s going to run off without it?” We laughed, and I agreed that it didn’t seem like we needed it this time. So, Claudia walked out with Bronco slowly limping beside her.

Less than a minute had passed when I heard shouting outside. I opened the door and looked outside to see what was going on. First I saw our neighbor and his two corgis running down the street as fast as they could. Our neighbor was screaming at the top of his lungs, “Get him off me! Get him off me!”

Behind him, Bronco was running with his cast going kabonk-kabonk-kabonk as it hit the sidewalk. Behind Bronco ran Claudia, who was also screaming at the top of her lungs. “Bronco! Sit! Stay! Stop!” Finally, Bronco stopped, and Claudia grabbed him. Holding his collar, she led him back in. This time Bronco was really silly.

Colorful illustration showing a big dog wearing a cast on his front left leg and running with it.
This is an illustration showing Bronco running down the street while wearing a cast. He was not supposed to bump the cast. Illustration by Naomi Rosenblatt.

Another time that Bronco was silly was when he started barking and jumping around when he saw a dog across the street. In the process he accidentally pushed our German Shepherd baby into a storm drain. I had to lay down on the ground and lift Baby out of storm drain all while holding onto Bronco. The owner of the other dog lifted up his dog into his arms and ran as fast as he could down the street. That was embarrassing and stressful. Silly Bronco.

An illustration showing me lying on the street. I am trying to pull up our German Shepherd Baby from a storm drain while holding onto our Leonberger Bronco who is jumping up and down and barking.
Once when Bronco was not so well behaved. He pushed our German Shepherd into a storm drain and I had to get her out while holding onto an agitated Bronco. Illustration by Naomi Rosenblatt.

Additional Silly Leonberger Photos

Bronco our Leonberger is shown standing in a kiddie pool.
Bronco our Leonberger get washed off at a fairly young age. He liked water.
Our Leonberger Bronco is standing by the kitchen gate. He is wearing a round hat. It is the kind of hat that pilgrims wore.
Bronco standing by the kitchen gate. The kitchen gate was there to keep him from going inside the kitchen and do counter surfing.
Our big Leonberger dog Bronco is lying on the sofa, and our pug Daisy is walking right by him.
Bronco and our Pug Daisy. Daisy is leaving because she thinks Bronco is hogging the sofa.
Photo of our Leonberger lying on his back and taking up all the room in the sofa.
Our Leonberger Bronco is sleeping on our big leather sofa.
Our Leonberger Bronco’s head is sticking up above the bushes.
Our Leonberger Bronco in the bushes.
Our Leonberger Bronco is standing in our backyard as a sunray is shining on his head. He looks like a saint.
Our Leonberger Bronco in the backyard. He was a saint. This time it is me, the photographer, who is silly.
A photo of our Leonberger dog wearing a blue party hat.
It is Bronco’s 11th birthday.
The photo shows a table with nothing on it. There is a pile of books and papers on the floor. Bronco is standing behind the table. He is wearing a big cone around his head.
After a toe amputation due to toe cancer, Bronco needed to wear a cone, a big soft cone. Unfortunately, he frequently cleared tables as he swung the cone back and forth. Here he has just pushed a pile of books and papers off a table.
The photo shows our big Leonberger on the left and our little mini-Australian Shepherd puppy Rollo on the right.
Bronco and our mini-Australian Shepherd puppy Rollo. Bronco is nicely welcoming our new puppy, but the size difference is silly.

In the photo below it is really our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo who is being silly. But he is very silly pulling Bronco’s tail. He even swung in it like a swing.

The photo shows our mini-Australian Shepherd biting Bronco’s tail and pulling on it as Bronco is trying to ignore him.
A rambunctious Rollo is biting Bronco’s tail. Bronco was very patient. One time Rollo swung in his tail as if it was a swing.

Below is a photo of silly gingerbread stealing dogs.

The photo shows our pug Daisy on the left and our Leonberger Bronco on the right. They are both looking into the camera. Pieces of the gingerbread house are lying on the floor.
Bronco our Leonberger with Daisy our Pug in the Kitchen. Bronco says, “look what Daisy did to the gingerbread house that stood on the counter”. Actually, what really happened was that Bronco grabbed the gingerbread house and shared it with Daisy.
Two Leonbergers standing next to each other and wearing party headwear typical for a carnival.
Digory and Obi are two Leonbergers. Digory was a very brave Leonberger who fought cancer. He was featured in the Leo-Letter a Leonberger Magazine  Photo by Jen O’Keefe. Jen is a friend in the Leonberger community.
Five Leonbergers lying in the grass. They are wearing hats showing the American flag.
Five Leonbergers including Digory on 4th of July 2023. Photo by Jen O’Keefe.
Six Leonbergers with celebration hats are looking straight into the camera.
Six Leonbergers celebrating a birthday. Photo by Jen O’Keefe.

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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.

58 thoughts on “25 Silly Leonbergers”

    1. Thank you so much Luisa. I realized later that this was a homeless and mentally ill man. I felt somewhat sorry for him but it certainly was much better that Bronco chased him off. My wife was certainly happy that he was gone. Bronco looked big and scary at night but the intruder was never in any danger.

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    1. Thank you so much Introverted Bookworm. Yes that was very stressful. I did not know how deep the storm drain was so I panicked. It turned out not to be very deep and Baby was probably able to stand on her backlegs.

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  6. Wonderful photos Thomas! Love the ‘bliss position’ on the sofa. That last picture is fabulous and would make a beautiful jigsaw puzzle. When our friend died last year, the family asked if there was anything of hers I’d like, and I asked for the puzzle of 8 German shepherds that was hanging in her lounge if no-one else wanted it. They were happy for me to have it and it’s hanging in our bedroom.
    Rollo biting Bronco’s tail reminds me of my dog Lucy. I moved back in with my parents when I divorced my first husband and took Lucy with me. They had a rough collie called Rocky, and Lucy used to swing on his tail. He had a permanent kink in it!

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    1. Thank you so much pensitivity101. It is great that you got that puzzle. So it is not only Rollo who did that. He was pestering Bronco all the time and Bronco was very patient. He didn’t like it when Rollo bit his tail and even swung in it, but he never did anything to Rollo. Rollo also walked on Bronco’s back, sat on him, and jumped on him. I tried to stop any mischief as soon as I could. Rollo loved Bronco but did not know how to behave.

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      1. Dogs, be they puppies or older, can be so funny. Older dogs tolerate the younger ones, but reprimand them if necessary.
        When I lost my first shepherd (twisted gut) the collie was inconsolable. I went to a breeder and asked if they had an older dog they were looking to rehome. He said no, but if I wanted a puppy, they were just starting their next matings and I could chose sire and dam. I said I really needed an older dog and explained the situation. He said they’d had a five year old bitch abandoned at their gate but she was very nervous. When they brought her in, I could have cried. Remembering what my Dad told me about letting the dog come to you, the breeder and I chatted and I felt a pressure on my knee. I said I’d like to try so we agreed I’d have her for a fortnight and if she didn’t settle, he would come and collect her. I spent hours gaining her trust, and our rough collie thought he could be top dog. She wasn’t having that, and sat on his head!
        When I left the relationship, I brought her with me, losing her to mammary cancer in 1990. I like to think she had five good years with me. It was over 4 years before Hubby and I got another a dog, a border collie we called Barney.

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        1. That is such a beautiful story. Abandoned at their gate. That is so sad but it is wonderful you got five beautiful years with her. Our German Shepherd Baby was a dog from a shelter. She was always an anxious and shy dog but when we got Bronco, she came to life, as if she got a purpose in life. I think she thought Bronco was her puppy, or at least she adopted him. I am so sorry for your losses. It is a heartbreaking but beautiful story.

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          1. Yes. She was so thin and nervous. They think she’d been used for breeding then just dumped. There were no microchips in those days, but the guy I spoke to cared about his dogs, and certainly cared about her which I could tell from the way he handled her and spoke to her. I went back two weeks later and said I’d like to keep her, and what did I owe him. He said it was up to me, but a donation would be appreciated. I gave him £30, which wasn’t a lot, but an entire week’s wages for me at the time. There was no way I could leave her behind when I left the relationship.

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            1. Wow that is quite a story. I am so glad you went back to get her. You are a great dog mama. So sad that someone would use her for breeding and then just dump her. There are so many backyard breeders / puppy mills out there. The Leonberger Club of America have been very successful of getting rid of that. You have to be LCA (Leonberger Club of America) certified to breed Leonbergers and to be certified you have to follow certain LCA regulations, including caring for any dog who is returned by an owner. As an owner you have to sign a contract, go through an interview and if you sell the dog or give it away without the approval of LCA, or you mistreat the dog and LCA finds out, then you will be banned from owning a Leonberger. But they are only able to do that because it is a relatively small community. There are only 2,000 Leonbergers in North America. In Europe there are a lot more.

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    1. Thank you so much Carol. The storm drain incident was very stressful. I did not know how deep the storm drain was so I was in panic (it was not deep, she could stand on her backlegs). But it is a good one to laugh about after the fact.

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  8. Wonderful photos! I recall you telling us that your remaining dog wasn’t great with other animals, but do you ever see yourself getting another Leonberger?

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    1. Thank you so much Pete. Rollo is better behaved but bringing in another dog in the house is still too risky. We would love to have another Leonberger. They are such great family dogs, strong and confident, calm and friendly. However, we’ll wait.

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  11. Bronco certainly had some interesting adventures! 😆 I enjoyed all of the photos, especially Bronco wearing a hat and Rollo grabbing his tail. I can just picture the little one hanging from it, as you described. It’s funny how so many large dogs think they’ll fit on your lap! Zoey tries that too. She’s only about 45 lbs., but even that is too much. Bronco’s weight must have been hard to bear! 😮‍💨

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    1. Yes, I recounted these adventures in the Leonberger forums on Facebook and people enjoyed them. The founder and administrator of a group called the Double Digit Leonberger group suggested I write a book and I did. You are right in the picture with Bronco sitting in Claudia’s lap Bronco weighs 167lbs.

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    1. Wow that is very exciting. Too bad she was tired and grouchy. I might have missed one or two of your posts because I am traveling. We are currently in Paris, France to visit my wife’s sister and her family and I only go online for maybe one or two minutes while I’m here. But I’ll catch up when I get back.

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  17. It must be fun watching Bronco an dRollo interacted, one was so big and the other so small. I can imagine Bronco swinging Rollo. The birthday photos look great. All the photos in this post are wonderful, Thomas!

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  18. Such an adorable and heartwarming post, Thomas! The illustrations are so lovely, too. The storm drain drawing had me laughing out loud. It seems like the type of situation which is stressful in the moment but hilarious in hindsight.

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    1. Thank you so much Damyanti. You are right. That was not fun and very stressful at the time, but now we can laugh about it. Naomi did a good job creating the illustrations cheaply and quickly.

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