White Rock Lake – Leonberger Life

Today is the two-year anniversary of my blog and this is the 215^th post.

Four Leonbergers running in water — Shutterstock-ID: 959582 by Ingvald Kaldhussater

My blog is primarily about Leonbergers, an unusual and fascinating dog breed that is known for its size, affectionate nature, and intelligence. We were lucky enough to live with one for thirteen years. His name was Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle—but we called him “Bronco” for short. I also wrote a book about Leonbergers and about Bronco’s many adventures : The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle. If you are on a desktop computer you’ll see the book in the sidebar on the right, and if you are on a phone you have to scroll to the bottom of the page. If you still cannot see the book, you can click here.

Leonbergers love to swim and so did our Bronco. This post features 25 photos of Leonbergers in the water, which is why the title of the post is 25 Waterberger photos. Most of the photos are of our Leonberger Bronco in White Rock Lake in Dallas. He loved to chase ducks and egrets, but catching is difficult. In the end he had no egrets. One of the photos is from a friend and there are a few stock photos. If you want to see Leonberger puppy photos click here, and if you want to see another set of 25 Leonbergers click here, and here is yet another set of 25 Leonbergers.

A Leonberger swimming in lake water — Our Leonberger Bronco swimming in White Rock Lake.

Bronco our Leonberger is standing in lake water — Bronco is standing in the water in White Rock Lake.

A Leonberger standing in lake water — Our Leonberger Bronco in shallow water. Still White Rock Lake.

A Leonberger standing in water — Digory a Leonberger in the water. Photo by Jen O’Keefe.

Leonberger standing in a blue kiddie pool — Young Bronco (maybe one years old) standing in a kiddie pool.

A Leonberger swimming with a ball in his mouth — Leonberger swimming with a ball. Stock Photo ID: 720242263 by Christian Mueller

A Leonberger standing in beach waves — Leonberger on the beach. Stock Photo ID: 1110805445 by Lolostock

Two Leonbergers swimming next to each other — Two Leonbergers swimming. Stock Photo ID: 1989806678 by Taibomaus.

Leonberger standing in water — Leonberger standing in river. Photo by Stephanie Lucero on Unsplash.

Our Leonberger standing in a blue kiddie pool — Our Bronco in a kiddie pool.

Leonberger dog swimming in a lake — Bronco swimming in White Rock Lake, Texas.

Leonberger dog standing in a lake water — Bronco standing in White Rock Lake, nearby Dallas, Texas.

Leonberger dog in lake water — Bronco again

Leonberger dog walking out of a lake — Bronco coming out of White Rock Lake

Leonberger dog walking into water. There is a canoe in the background. — Bronco walking into White Rock Lake

Leonberger dog walking out of a lake. There is a canoe in the background. — Bronco coming back out of White Rock Lake

Leonbergers are double-coated, and they have webbed paws, so they’re natural swimmers. Bronco was no exception: he loved to swim and chase waterfowl at our go-to destination, White Rock Lake. If he saw ducks or egrets in the water, he would swim after them. They would fly off before he could get to them, though, so he never caught any. That was okay—he still had fun, and he had no egrets (pun intended).

Leonbergers are excellent swimmers. Here is our Leonberger swimming in White Rock Lake. — Leonbergers are excellent swimmers and are sometimes used in water rescue.

Claudia started taking Bronco to White Rock with Baylor and Baby when he was an adolescent. At first, he was hesitant to get into the water. Then a nice man came along (we don’t know who he was) and threw a stick a little way out into the lake. He asked Bronco to get it, and he did. Then he threw the stick a little bit farther so that Bronco had to swim to get it. Little by little and step by step, the man encouraged Bronco to swim. And once he got started, there was no looking back. Swimming in the lake became one of his favorite pastimes.

Bronco loved swimmed in White Rock Lake outside Dallas — Bronco loved swimming in White Rock Lake.

After a while, getting Bronco into the water was easy. Unleash him, and he would walk right in. Getting Bronco out—that was another story.

Leonbergers are excellent swimmers. Here is our Leonberger Bronco swimming in White Rock Lake nearby Dallas. — Bronco in water

It wasn’t that he disobeyed. He came out of the water when we asked him to. The problem was what happened after he came out. He shook himself dry, like all wet dogs do, but a large dog with a coat like his has a lot of water to share. If you’ve ever been to a show at SeaWorld, you know that you get very wet if you sit in the first row. It was the same with Bronco: if you stood close enough to hold the leash, you were bound to get soaked when he shook himself. Our choices were to walk away, hide behind a tree, or take the involuntary bucket challenge. Towels certainly came in handy.

Leonbergers are excellent swimmers. Here is our Leonberger coming out of the water. — At White Rock Lake, Dallas

One morning, Claudia was taking Bronco for a walk around the lake with two of her sisters, Dora and Marianne. Suddenly Bronco jumped in the lake. But there were steep banks on either side of him, and he couldn’t get back out. So Claudia got in the water with him and pushed his butt while Dora and Marianne encouraged him to move toward a less steep part of the bank. They got him out, but this scary incident didn’t decrease Bronco’s love of swimming.