María Allen
# 10 During this time, Heinrich Essig from Leonberg, who was a friend of large, long-haired dogs, began to cross the then well-known and widely popular dogs from the monastery hospice of St. Bernhard, which are now known as St. Bernards, with a black and white Newfoundland female.
According to the description, some traditions assume that the female was a Landseer. Heinrich Essig also crossed Pyrenean mountain dogs, from which Saint Bernards descended. And legend or not: the dog he bred bears a lot of resemblance to a lion.
# 11 But there is also the theory that the dogs had existed in Baden-Württemberg for a long time and that Heinrich Essig only skilfully paired them and bred them back.
This can probably no longer be clarified exactly. Heinrich Essig had a lot of envy among the dog breeders of the time and it is quite possible that they only spread the latter to give him a bad reputation.
# 12 Because the rise of the Leonberger was rapid.
Heinrich Essig wrote in a letter to a dog breeder: "My dogs, which I have been training since 1846...". This is one of the few traditions that mention the year 1846 as the year the Leonbergers were born. Large, long-haired dogs were very popular at the time and Heinrich Essig made his Leonberger known with clever marketing.