This blog feature amusing and heartwarming stories about our late Leonberger dog Bronco, as well as other Leonbergers. It also has a lot of information about the Leonberger breed, the history, care, training, Leonberger organizations, etc. I also wrote a Leonberger book, which I am featuring in the sidebar.
This post is mostly photos of our late Leonberger Bronco and our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo. As you may know Bronco was a remarkable and brave Leonberger who saved the lives of our other dogs on two occasions, rescued run away hamsters, and liberated my wife and the women in our neighborhood from a nightly peeping Tom. Well, he also did a lot of less desirable but funny things. Bronco lived a long life for a Leonberger and was therefore awarded the Grey Muzzle Award and the Leonberger Health Foundation International wanted his DNA.
We got Rollo four years ago. Our little Rollo and Bronco were best buddies. Rollo climbed all over Bronco, bit his tail and even dangled in it like a swing one time. Rollo wanted to play with Bronco all the time and Bronco was very accepting of his rambunctiousness. Unfortunately, Rollo lost his buddy when Bronco passed away. Things have not been the same since then, but Rollo is still thriving. Below are some photos of them two.
Our Leonberger Bronco (Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle) at the age of three months.Our Leonberger Bronco at a young age, jumping up to give me a hug.Bronco is all grown up and sitting in my wife Claudia’s lap.Our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo when we picked him up at the breeder. 8 weeks old. The other puppy is an English Bulldog.Rollo is finally home, still a bit scared.Bronco welcoming the new puppy.Bronco and Rollo in the kitchen.RolloRollo wants to play with Bronco.Rollo jumping up and biting Bronco’s tail. Once he even dangled in it like a swing. Luckily Bronco was tolerant.Two of our kids and two of our dogs.The Artist and his Art. Those were my nice shoes.Rollo with a volleyball.Rollo with a soccer ball. Rollo rolls things.Rollo wants a belly rub.Rollo (grown up) wants to play with Bronco.Rollo gives Bronco a kiss.Rollo gives Bronco a kiss.Rollo gives Bronco a kiss.Rollo and Bronco in our backyard.Rollo and Bronco in our backyard. That’s my grill to fly off in a tornado a few months after this photo.Rollo and Bronco lying on the floor in our house. Bronco has a bandage on his foot because he just had a toe amputation because of Squamous Cell Carcinoma.Rollo is overseeing Bronco’s bandage change. Rollo was extremely interested in everything that happened during the bandage change.Rollo on the sofa.St. Bronco in our backyard. He is St. Bronco because he rescued our runaway hamsters, saved our pug Daisy’s life, sniffed out an oncoming insulin shock in our Labrador Baylor, and saved the women in the neighborhood, including my wife, from a nightly peeping Tom.
Our Leonberger Bronco (Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle) grew up with several dogs, one of them being our Pug Daisy, which we still have. Bronco and Daisy were good friends and on one occasion Bronco saved Daisy from an attacking lose German Shepherd. We’ve owned a very well-behaved German Shepherd, they are good dogs, but this particular one wasn’t.
Bronco stepped in between the German Shepherd and Daisy and got bitten in the leg in the process. Leonbergers are about double as strong as German Shepherds and almost double as massive and they have more powerful jaws. However, Bronco was old and had just had surgery in the leg in which he was bit, so it was certainly a sacrifice on his part. I was mad and I ran after the German Shepherd and tried kicking him and between mine and Bronco’s efforts he ran off. I cursed at the owner of the German Shepherd for letting him run lose in a public space. Maybe I shouldn’t have, but in the end Daisy our innocent sweet Pug was alive. What a day that was. Anyway, in this post I am showing a few photos I took of Bronco and Daisy.
Daisy (Pug) and Bronco (Leonberger)Bronco raided a gingerbread house, but he is sharing with Daisy.Daisy and Bronco in the backyard
Above Daisy and Bronco on our large wide leather sofa.
Daisy’s birthday
Finally, I also would like to highlight the Dawn of Humanity series written by Jacqui Murray once again. I loved this series and I highly recommend it. Below I am posting some information about the Dawn of Humanity series.
Ira Van Order or Velvy TheLion, which is her nick name, is a multiple Leonberger owner, a prominent member of the Leonberger Club of America, a volunteer for the Leonberger Health Foundation International and she is the administrator of the Grey Muzzle Award that was awarded to our Bronco. I think all of you who have visited this blog multiple times or follow this blog or have read my book know about the Grey Muzzle Award. She allowed me to use her beautiful Happy New Year Leonberger photo in my blog post. Thank you Velvy.
Caspian (Obi’s nephew), Austin (Obi’s son), Delfi (our 10 yr old, living with lung cancer), Obi (now 7 and a veteran), Digory, and Rilian (Obi’s son). They all wish everyone a Very Happy New Year!! Photo by Velvy TheLion.
Update from Velvy regarding Digory: He is a miracle, Leo. Two years and 8 months ago he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. Osteosarcoma is a very aggressive type of bone cancer. He was five years old at the time and had an amputation and chemo. This will typically give them another year to live. Velvy does not know of any other Leonberger that has lived more than one year post amputation. He is still with us two years and 8 months later. Velvy believes that an experimental treatment using a vaccine that he received via a Yale study is what made the difference. Velvy calls Digory a beacon of hope.
Today I received a nice gift from a couple of friends, six stamps from Grenada and Grenadines featuring six dogs, a Leonberger (upper left side), a Newfoundland dog (upper right side), a boxer (mid-left), a St. Bernard (mid-right), a silky terrier (lower left side), and a miniature schnauzer (lower right side). I was very happy receive this gift, especially since one of the dogs is a Leonberger. FYI: The Grenadines is a chain of small islands that lie on a line between the larger islands of Saint Vincent and Grenada in the Lesser Antilles.
Stamps from Grenada and Grenadines featuring dogs including a Leonberger.
Out of curiosity I decided to search the internet and I found that not only are stamps featuring dogs common but stamps featuring Leonbergers are common as well. I found Leonberger stamps from Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Djibouti, Congo, Niger, Monaco, Malawi, and Christmas Island. Below I am showing a few of them.
Stamp from Monaco featuring Leonberger and Newfoundland dog.Stamp from Malawi featuring Leonberger.Stamp from Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Djibouti, Congo, Niger and country I can’t make out featuring Leonbergers.
We are visiting Sweden, specifically the High Coast. I am originally from here. This is a beautiful area with fjords, mountains and forests. We took a ski lift up to the top of a mountain called Skule Berget/Mountain. At the top there is a cabin that’s open for tourists. You can also walk up the mountain on a steep long trail. In addition to visiting the cabin and watching the views from the mountain top we climbed down a cliff to visit a cave and after our visit we walked down the trail. It was a day filled with exercise. However, the highlight of the day was that we met a Leonberger, Amie, and her owner at the top of mountain.
Amie at the top of the Skule Mountain.
We shouted, “look a Leonberger”, and Amie started wagging her tail and running towards us. She obviously loved attention. Her owner let us pet her and take a few photos of her. Amie was very playful, she rolled around and wanted to be petted. She was very friendly. She reminded us of our late Leonberger Bronco, but being a female she was a little bit smaller and more feminine looking.
Amie was playful but very well behaved.
Amie is nine years old, which is old for a Leonberger. We were impressed that she walked all the way up to the mountain top.
View from the Skule Mountain topThe cabin at the Skule mountain topWe are walking back down
Our Leonberger Bronco or Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle lived a very long life for a Leonberger. Large dogs do not live as long as small dogs and giant breeds such as St. Bernards, Great Danes, and Leonbergers have much shorter life spans. The average life span for Leonbergers is 8 years. Bronco died two weeks short of 13 years. He got a so called, Grey Muzzle Award, from the Leonberger Health Foundation International, and we submitted his DNA to a lab for research. The Leonberger Health Foundation International is an organization that support health related Leonberger-specific research. They fund research on various illnesses common in Leonbergers as well as the longevity of Leonbergers. This research benefit other giant breeds as well.
Dogs are considered senior after they pass 2/3 of their expected lifespan (5.3 years), which means that Bronco technically was a senior for more than 2/3’s of his life. This posts, feature 20 photos from his old age.
Our Leonberger Bronco sitting in the front lawn.In this photo our Leonberger Bronco is eleven years old and standing in front of our hallway. Old age is starting to set in. In this photo he has already had squamous cell carcinoma a toe-skin cancer and he has amputated a couple of toes.Our Leonberger Bronco eleven years old, looking a little bit scruff and getting grey hair.Bronco with our pug Daisy whom he protected with his life. He saved her life by intervening when a lose German Shepherd went after her and he even shared food with her he had stolen from me.Bronco loved our big red sofa. It was great for him but too deep to be comfortable for humans.Bronco and Daisy in the backyard.Bronco is welcoming a new puppy, a mini-Australian Shepherd called Rollo.Rollo loved playing with Bronco. He walked all over him, sat on his head like a hat and dangled in his tail. Bronco was patient.Two buddies in the backyard.Bronco is hungry and is coming to get my attention.Our Leonberger Bronco in Grandpa’s bushes.Our Leonberger Bronco is twelve years old in this photo, a quite respectable age for a Leonberger.Our Leonberger Bronco was a saint. He saved Daisy’s life, he might have saved the life of our Labrador Baylor as well, when he sniffed out an oncoming insulin shock before it happened.A tornado ravaged our neighborhood, smashed our chimney, ruined our roof, and partially damaged our fence. It was not Bronco huffing and puffing. He had just had a toe amputation due to a reoccurrence of squamous cell carcinoma. He has a bandage on his leg, which was protected by a one-gallon zip-lock bag when he is walking outside.Bronco’s Grey Muzzle Award has arrived. He received the award for living longer than 12 years, a rare feat for a Leonberger. It is the Leonberger Health Foundation International that give out this award.Our Leonberger Bronco with the, so called, cone of shame. Well, it was a soft cone for comfort and the largest size to match his size. Unfortunately, he swung that cone around sometimes clearing tabletops.Bronco barging into the bathroom with his cone and all. He didn’t like being alone.Old Bronco sitting in the backyard.Our Leonberger Bronco was almost 13 years old in this photo.Among the last photos of Bronco. After this photo he passed away from a heart failure. He always had a heart of gold but even hearts of gold don’t last forever.
This blog post is focused on Ryu one of the dogs that Bronco grew up with.
Ryu a Japanese Chin
Around a year after we got Bronco, we got a fourth dog, a Japanese Chin. He was a gift for our daughter, Rachel, who named him Ryu after a Japanese ninja warrior. Ryu was a very energetic dog, quick and brave—except that he was terrified of thunderstorms. At seventeen or eighteen pounds, he was bigger than most Japanese Chins, but he was still a small dog. He got along very well with Bronco.
Rachel and Ryu, the Japanese Shin at the dogpark.
One of the things that stood out about Ryu was his singing. Japanese Chins are famous for their singing—well, actually, it’s closer to howling, but Ryu’s was a beautiful howl, and he was very proud of it.
Ryu the howling opera singer.
As soon as he discovered that he got a lot of attention for it, he started doing it quite often. Whenever we came home, he would sit politely, look at us intently—it seemed like he was clearing his throat too and howl. Like an opera singer, he would slowly turn his head to look at us, as if he were performing. In fact, I think Ryu’s howling sounded just like a night at the opera—especially when the lyrics are sung in Italian.
Ryu loved dancing and singing and Bronco partially visible on the left was his big brother and protector.
We would say, “Good boy, Ryu,” and clap, and he looked mighty proud. Other people thought it was cute and wonderful, too, and they gave him lots of praise, and of course he loved doing it and got good at it. When Rachel played the harmonica, Ryu would howl along. They made quite a duo.
“Good boy” might not be the kind of praise Andrea Bocelli would want, but Ryu was perfectly happy with it.
The interaction between Ryu and Bronco was sometimes truly amazing to watch. I remember one instance in which Bronco was sleeping in the house and Ryu was outside in our fenced backyard. The door to the backyard was open. I heard Ryu bark a few times. He had evidently seen something he wanted us to notice—or something he wanted other people to notice.
On the left Daisy (Pug) and Ryu (Japanese Chin). On the right Bronco our Leonberger.
Then I saw Ryu running in through the back door. He was a fast runner. He ran to Bronco, jumped on his stomach, and barked at him. Bronco woke up, looking drowsy and confused. Ryu waited for Bronco to shake off his grogginess and get up, then he ran out the back door with Bronco in tow. They both hurried to the gate that leads to the street. Ryu yapped, and Bronco barked his loud, booming bark. Ryu had enlisted help to multiply his bark power.
Three dogs resting and probably thinking up mischief. Ryu a clever little dog enlisting big brother’s help.Bronco our Leonberger was very protective of his little siblings Ryu our Japanese Shin and Daisy our Pug. He saved Daisy’s life when he got in between her and an attacking loose big dog.Ryu loved DaisyDaisy and Ryu, Bronco in the corner.Sleeping little dogsRyu’s birthday. Bronco is helping with the celebrations.Not every day was great.
Our Leonberger Bronco grew up with several other dogs. Bronco loved them all and protected them with his life. He saved our pug’s life and got bit in the process. He sniffed out an oncoming insulin shock in our Labrador and the early detection may have saved his life. When Bronco was a puppy, he was fiercely protected by his stand-in mama our German Shepherd Baby. The other dogs sometimes followed Bronco around doing mischief. You can read about their crazy adventures in my book (see below). This post features various photos of Bronco and his siblings.
Sulley a young English Mastiff is reading my book. Sulley never knew Bronco but they would have loved each other.Bronco our Leonberger at three months oldBronco at three months old in black and whiteOur Labrador Baylor and our German Shepherd Baby. Photo taken at the same time as the two photos above. However, we couldn’t get Bronco sit still between Baylor and Baby.Our German Shepherd Baby is playing with Bronco. He is about five months old in the photo. Baby seemed to think that Bronco was her puppy. She protected him and stayed by his side at all time.Baylor our Labrador loved swimming, just like our Leonberger Bronco did.Bronco and Baby at the dog park. In the photo Bronco was almost one years old but did not quite look like a Leonberger yet. He needed a little bit more time to fill out.Bronco with his two little siblings, the pug Daisy and the Japanese Chin named Ryu (ninja warrior).Ryu and Daisy protesting that we are leaving for a trip. We had someone watching them, but they still hated when we left.It Daisy’s birthday (the pug) and Bronco helps celebrating. Bronco loved Daisy and saved her life from an attacking wild German Shepherd.Bronco raided our gingerbread house and shared some with Daisy.Daisy and Bronco. Two old friends in the backyard.A new puppy arrives, Rollo, a mini-Australian Shepherd. Hello Rollo!The new puppyRollo liked to pull and even swing in Bronco’s tail. He also walked over him and sat on him. Bronco was very patient.Bronco rub my belly!The artist and his art. Rollo loved chewing shoes. He has gotten over that now.Rollo (mini-Australian Shepherd) and Bronco (Leonberger) two buddies.Bronco was not afraid of anything. Rollo was afraid of everything.Bronco getting old, almost 13 and recovering from a heart failure.
This post presents various photos of our late Leonberger Bronco swimming. Leonbergers have webbed paws and they are excellent swimmers. They are therefore used in water rescue. Some Leonbergers are trained to jump out of helicopters and into to the ocean. Bronco did not jump out of any helicopters, but he jumped into White Rock Lake in Dallas almost every weekend. Bronco loved swimming and he loved chasing ducks and egrets in the water, as well as fetching sticks in the water. Click on any of the photos below to read about Bronco’s water adventures.
Click on the photo to read about Bronco’s swim adventures.Click on the photo to read about Bronco’s swim adventures.Click on the photo to read about Bronco’s swim adventures.Click on the photo to read about Bronco’s swim adventures.Click on the photo to read about Bronco’s swim adventures.Click on the photo to read about Bronco’s swim adventures.
Leonberger Life 