Family-friendly: | 3/5 |
Exercise needs: | 3/5 |
Easy to train: | 3/5 |
Tolerates being alone: | 3/5 |
Likes other pets: | 3/5 |
Energy level: | 2/5 |
Grooming needs: | 5/5 |
Shedding: | 5/5 |
- Dogs suitable for experienced owners
- Extra training required
- Need to be aware of potential health issues
- Enjoys active walks
- Enjoys more than two hours of walking a day
- Giant dog
- Some drool
- Requires grooming daily
- Quiet dog
- Barks, alerts and may be physically protective/suspicious of visitors
- Could have issues with unknown dogs but gets along with known dogs
- May need additional training to live with other pets
- May need additional supervision to live with children
- Needs a large garden
- Best suited to countryside
- Can be left occasionally with training
Leonberger dogs can suffer from:
- Hip dysplasia
- Elbow dysplasia
- Gastric dilatation volvulus
- Glaucoma which is a painful condition where the pressure in the eye builds up.
- Hereditary cataracts which is a condition where the lens in the eye becomes cloudy and this can result in blindness.
- Leonberger polyneuropathy which is a neuromuscular disease the causes nerve loss.
- Leukoencephalomyelopathy which is a nervous disease affecting the spinal cord.
Priority Kennel Club health schemes and testing:
- Hip dysplasia screening scheme
- Elbow dysplasia screening scheme
- Eye screening scheme
- Eye testing for pectinate ligament abnormality testing to look for signs that a dog is affected by glaucoma.
Personality
Leonbergers should easy-going, placid, loyal and even-tempered but they are also self-confident and strong sometimes displaying their guard dog ancestry. They get on well with other pets and children and are often endlessly patient and surprisingly playful for such a large dog.
Did you know?
To start with the Leonberger wasn’t an intentional breed. They were created when the monks of St Bernard were trying to improve the St Bernard breed. They were the first to cross their own dogs with Newfoundlands but didn’t like the result but thankfully the Mayor of Leonberg did!
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