Our breeding was started with imported girls and a lot of time was spent on choosing the particular lines to import. We have done our best to find lines that are healthy in more ways than just the measured health tests. In our chosen lines we have also paid attention to the Fertility, vitality, longevity and healthy immune system. We are also paying attention to the wider picture of Leonbergers as a breed and are aiming to produce dogs that would benefit the breed as a whole.

 

Especially in recent years the genepool size of the breed has become even more of an issue and I suppose this has become a driving factor in our breeding and selection. Over half of our litters are sired by males that have not produced any puppies before and we will not use a male that has produced a lot of litters already; There simply is no need to preserve such males genes as they have already been "saved" for the future.

 

We keep in touch with all of our puppies through out their lives. This is very important to us so we can follow the health of our line but also so that if there is a problem correct care & support to allow the dog to live a normal life can be started when the dog is still young and does not yet show the symptoms. Obviously we hope for and do our utmost best to breed healthy Leos but as with anything living, there are no guarantees. This is why we need to know the whole picture -The health status of ALL of the puppies in the litter, not just the ones we keep ourselves. Our puppy owners are not "customers" or "clients" to us, they become part of the Cleon family.

                                   

We fully support any research going on in order to make gene tests to allow breeders to screen their dogs in the future. At the moment there is research done in few serious illnesses affecting Leonbergers LP/PN, Bone cancer and Anal Furunculosis but progress is slow due to a small amount of samples of affected dogs made available by the owners & breeders. 

 

We collect DNA from every puppy prior to them leaving us and rely our new owners to keep us up to date on their puppies through out their lives. If in the future any health issues surface in our lines, we have samples of all of the puppies we have bred, available to be given to researchers investigating inheritance modes of different illnesses. Having -family group- DNA samples available can be very useful for the scientists and can advance the studies rapidly.  

 

Please see Leonberger club of GB or Leonberger Health Foundation for further up to date information on research going on with Leonbergers.