Tag: Pug Daisy

Leonbergers Giving Gifts to Pugs

Esther’s writing prompt: 17th December : Giving

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Dogs give gifts and do nice things for people and other dogs. In this post I am describing three occasions when our late Leonberger Bronco gave our Pug Daisy gifts.

Leonberger Shares a Gingerbread House

Our Leonberger dog Bronco (his full name was Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle) was an expert counter surfer, which is why we installed a pet gate to the entrance of our kitchen. Bronco knew how to open gates if they were not locked, so you had to make sure that you did not just close the gate but lock it. However, one December day I forgot to lock the gate. That was the day our daughter had made a gingerbread house and left it on the kitchen counter. Guess who ate half the gingerbread house? Guess who ate some of the other half? Bronco shared some with Daisy. He was always very generous. The photo below is what I saw when I got home that day.

A pug on the left, and Leonberger dog on the right. There are pieces of a gingerbread house on the floor. There is an open gate in the background.
The open gate behind Daisy and Bronco permitted their gingerbread-house raid.

Leonberger Shares a Baked Potato

I believe dogs have empathy, and sometimes they want to share—at least Bronco did. There was a time when we were in our home eating take-out food and Bronco stole one of our dinners, including meat, vegetables, and a baked potato. He started eating the meat, then he glanced at Daisy, who was sitting in the middle of the floor looking sad. Immediately he took the baked potato in his mouth and carried it over to her and dropped it right at her feet. I was going to get mad at him for stealing, but when I saw his kindhearted and unselfish act, I let it be.

Daisy our pug is sitting in front of a vent.
Daisy our Pug was sitting there looking sad, but she got a baked potato with bacon and butter. I should say that the photo is from another occasion when she sat in front of the vent because she was cold. But it is close enough.

Leonberger Saves our Pug Daisy’s Life

On another occasion, Bronco did something else amazing for Daisy. Despite having issues with his paws—this was around the time he was being treated for squamous cell carcinoma—he saved Daisy from an attacking German shepherd who was running loose.

We were at my wife Claudia’s parents’ house, just leaving, standing on their driveway, when one of their neighbors came out to drop some garbage in the trash can at the end of her driveway. With her was a young, probably adolescent, German shepherd, and he was not on a leash. As we were standing on the porch, I suddenly saw the shepherd flying through the bushes, his teeth bared. He quickly charged us—viciously.

First, he went for Daisy, but Bronco got between them to protect her. Essentially, Bronco saved her life. The shepherd bit his leg in return. Bronco was almost twelve when this happened, and he was not as strong as he used to be. A German shepherd would have been an easy opponent for Bronco just a few years earlier, but at that point he was old, and he did not need the extra stress.

I kicked the German shepherd in the stomach, and he ran off. Bronco’s legs were weak—he had recently had a toe operation, and his walking was unsteady—so seeing the shepherd going for the leg on which he had had his operation was very upsetting. The shepherd could have bitten me, of course, and I could have been severely injured, but I didn’t care. I was defending my dogs—who were all on a leash, by the way. If the shepherd had bitten me, the owner could have been criminally charged, and there could have been a lawsuit

The owner of the shepherd came over to apologize, but I cursed at her. Maybe I shouldn’t have, but she had a vicious and dangerous dog, and she intentionally let him run loose. In the end, though, there were no major injuries. Bronco’s leg was slightly hurt, but overall, he was fine. These days, whenever we talk about this incident, I jokingly refer to the neighbor dog as Cujo. I should say that we’ve had a German Shepherd who was a sweetheart, so this is story is in no way an attempt to disparage German Shepherds. They are typically wonderful dogs as well.

In conclusion, this third example was an example of Bronco giving up his safety and potential health to protect our Pug Daisy.

The photo shows our Leonberger Bronco standing in the backyard as a sun ray is shining down over his head.
Bronco was a hero saving Daisy’s life.

My Other Responses to Esther’s Prompts

What are your favorite animals Not Murder Moose Anymore

When I was in second grade, I liked horror stories, and my favorite animal was the Murder Moose. The Murder Moose was a big Moose with big teeth, and it went around killing people in my village in northern Sweden where I lived. In school I wrote my first story about the Murder Moose, and I made a drawing. My story and my drawing are unfortunately lost but with the help of ChatGPT I made another drawing based on my memories from my childhood’s Murder Moose. I should say that at the time I knew nothing about Dinosaurs yet, otherwise my favorite animal might have been Dinosaurs.

Daily writing prompt
What are your favorite animals?
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A moose with big antlers and giant sharp teeth.
The murder moose in my second grade story. The picture was generated by ChatGPT.

As an adult my perspective has changed. Now I love dogs. I have a dog, Rollo, and have owned many dogs, something that I never had a chance to do as a kid. I love dogs very much and I am especially fond of Leonberger dogs. I wrote a book about Leonbergers and our late Leonberger dog Bronco, or Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle to be precise. The title of the book is “The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle, Stories and Tips from Thirteen Years with a Leonberger”.

On the left there is a color photo of our Leonberger as a puppy. He is wearing a scarf. On the right he is big, old and gray and lying in the grass looking into the camera.
On the left our Leonberger Bronco is three months old. On the right Bronco as an unusually old Leonberger at almost 13.
Bronco is standing on our red leather sofa giving me hug and a kiss.
Bronco our Leonberger is giving me a kiss. He is about one year old and not yet fully grown.
Old black and white photo showing a man holding a Leonberger with a leash.
Bronco’s direct ancestor on the male side Leo von der Sagmuhle in Germany about 100 years ago (18 generations). The Worldwide Independent Leonberger Database keeps track of all registered Leonbergers, making ancestry research for Leonberger dogs easy.
Claudia my wife sitting in a red sofa with our very big dog in her lap.
Our Leonberger Bronco sitting in my wife’s lap. He was 167 pounds at the time.
A Leonberger is lying on the floor, and my book is leaning against the dog.
Hachi a one-year-old Canadian Leonberger with my Leonberger book. The owner and photographer are Brenda Saito and her husband.

However, the first dogs we had as a family was our Labrador Baylor and German Shepherd Baby. I should say that Baylor was not a purebred Labrador, he was one quarter Rhodesian Ridgeback.

Our yellow Lab Baylor is sitting on the left. Our brown-black German Shepherd Baby is sitting on the right.
Our Labrador Baylor and German Shepherd Baby. They were both rescues.

One of the reasons I love dogs is that they are very social and often quite intelligent. They provide companionship, they are loving, loyal, fun, innocent, playful and they can also provide protection whether it is physically or just because of their barking, which alerts us to the presence of strangers. Add to that the fact that you need to take them for daily walks, which will keep you healthy as well.

Bronco, Baylor, and Baby were not our only dogs. 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.
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.
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.

Leonberger Photo Posts