As recently as 1985, there were fewer than 100 Leonbergers in the U.S and the LCA naively believed its only health challenges to be eliminating hip dysplasia and missing teeth. By 1995, we had over 800 Leos and we were starting to see incidences of Cancer, Hypothyroidism, OCD, Addison's Disease, and Cardiomyopathy.

Since then, our Leo population has increased to over 2000. Information coming our way suggests that more and more diseases are popping up relative to the growth of our general population. According to geneticists, this was bound to happen. Until we start breeding away from diseases, the occurrences will continue to increase. But we cannot breed away from disease until we know it exists!

We all need to be very careful about pointing fingers at specific dogs as being contributors to certain health problems because it is difficult to determine how, how much, if, whether, and in which combinations, individual dogs contribute to a problem. Most traits are not simple genetic mechanisms that are readily understood. Some diseases are controlled by more than one gene, while others have both environmental and genetic components. Still other diseases are not heritable, and therefore, cannot be controlled by selective breeding.

Until DNA testing becomes routine, there will not be any absolute answers. We strongly suggest that breeders research their dogs' backgrounds for health problems by calling relevant dogs' owners and/or breeders before planning a breeding.

As we review both old and new health problems, we prioritize these problems by estimating the potential threat these disorders may present to the breed. Our end goal is to definitively identify carriers by DNA testing at which time we will be able to make specific recommendations concerning selective breeding.

Until that time, however, our partnership with you is crucially important. We cannot breed away from diseases until we know they exist, so we rely on each of you to keep us informed of the health status of your Leonberger friends.

If you or someone you know, has a Leonberger that has been diagnosed with a health issue, please contact our committee member responsible for that area and give them the diagnosed information accompanied by a veterinarian's report. Unfortunately, we cannot use information that is simply provided by word of mouth - we need some form of medical diagnosis to verify the illness, either a letter from a vet, test results, or a necropsy report.

Thank you for caring about the health of our wonderful dogs!