THE LEONBERGER An Inadvertent Modern-Day Companion By Caroline Bliss-Isberg
Nineteenth-century illustration of Heinrich Essig in his kennel with his early Leonbergers by T. Specht.
I n 1846, Heinrich Essig, a dog- loving entrepreneur beamed as he observed a wriggling litter of newborn puppies. Th at day, after years of trying, he was witness- ing the realization of a dream— the birth of his own dog breed. He named his breed the Leonberger, in honor of Leonberg, Germany, his hometown. Th e genetic stew that produced Essig’s desired traits came from breeding and inter-breeding a Barry-type dog from the Hospice of Saint Bernard, a Land- seer Newfoundland, and a wolfhound
of undetermined parentage. Th ere is evi- dence that early Leos also had more than a dash of genetic material from the butch- er dogs residing in the neighboring town of Rottweil. Essig was a visionary who was always a bit ahead of his time. He succeeded in inten- tionally producing the fi rst dog breed spe- ci fi cally designed to be a luxury commodity. Furthermore, he achieved this goal a full decade before the Victorians ushered in the modern age of purposeful dog breeding. Th roughout Essig’s life, Leonberg- ers were status symbols, commanding
high prices and shipped world-wide. Th ey graced the palaces of Empress Elizabeth of Austria, King Umberto of Italy, Garibaldi, and Richard Wagner. In the 1880s, Bu ff alo Bill Cody tried unsuccessfully to buy a pair from an American actress for $5,000.00. As a self-made man, Essig felt con- strained by the rules of the Victorian dog fancy, and refused to write a breed standard or provide pedigrees. His stubbornness alienated the nineteenth-century dog world. After his death, the Leonberger almost disappeared, but a handful of ardent admir- ers resurrected the fl oundering breed.
212 • S HOW S IGHT M AGAZINE , F EBRUARY 2014
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