After many months of hard work, several design revisions, and a lot of time and effort, the RMLC is proud to present the new website. Our main drive behind rebuilding the site is to serve as a viable tool to continue cultivation an active Leonberger community for the Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming regions.

The new site has a wealth of information, and we will hope you find it easy to use and navigate. Several features of the site include member forums, member gallerys, and the ability to upload images, and even tag in YouTube movies.

If you would like to become a site member and start creating your own galleries and posting to the forum, head over to our website sign up page.

If you have feedback on the site please dont hesitate to drop a comment!

Best,

John Ensign, President
Rocky Mountain Leonberger Club

2009 LCA Specialty

The LCA 2009 National Specialty and Annual Club Meeting will be held at the Olympia Resort in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, 30 miles west of Milwaukee. The Olympic Resort is an extremely dog friendly resort and has hosted numerous dog events. All show events are on site. Olympia Resort offers golf, indoor and outdoor swimming and a full sevice spa. There are numerous events for both dogs and owners and we encourage you to find out more and become involved with the LCA, its great people, and its great dogs. To find out more, make bookings, find event registration forms, and see what all the buzz is about please visit the LCA website here. Here is a short cut to the Schedule of events.

If you have never attended an LCA National Specialty, you are really missing out! Come on out and see more Leonbergers, and the great people they own. You don't have to be competing to attend. There are educational seminars on breeding, health, behavior, not to mention vendors, award ceremonies, dinners, and planned group events.

More information: LCA event page

When: April 1-5, 2009
Where: Olympia Resort, Oconomowoc, WI
Reservation info: Please call Olympia Resort at 1-800-558-9573 and ask for the Leonberger Group .

Hope to see you there!

Welcome to the Rocky Mountain Leonberger Club

The Rocky Mountain Leonberger Club represents Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.  The RMLC is an official regional club of the Leonberger Club of America, the official founding registry and breed club for Leonbergers in the United States. Established in 1985, the LCA founding members brought the first modern-day Leonbergers into this country. For the past 19 years, the LCA has been the prominent Leonberger club in the United States and is the governing club for Leonbergers in the AKC. The RMLC is very proud to represent Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, and welcomes all LCA members from those states. This website serves as a resource for the club, regional Leonberger enthusiasts, and those who are curious about the wonderful Leonberger breed.

If you are looking for more information on finding a Leonberger puppies and breeders click here.

For information on joining the RMLC and the LCA, just pop over to our  membership page. And for more localized information and contacts on a state by state region, please visit our contact us page.

Great Dogs, Great People.

Thanks for visiting and we hope you enjoy the site.

The Rocky Mountain Leonberger Club was founded in 2001 as a regional club of the Leonberger Club of America. We serve the states of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Our mission it to bring together Leonberger enthusiasts and foster an active Leo community across our region. The club has yearly activities and events, member services, and will produce its first annual LCA/AKC sanctioned RMLC Fall Specialty show this year. We also strive to be a source of accurate information on the breed, and through our membership share the joy of this breed.

We love this breed and strive to bring together great people with great dogs. And how else are you going to manage to get 20+ leonbergers in the same place at the same time! Send us a hello and find out more.

Our Team

RMLC 2009 Board and officers:

President and board member: John Ensign
Secretary and board member: Stephanie Lucero
Treasurer and board member: open
Board member: open
Board member: Mary Ruggiero-Smith

State 2009 contacts:

Colorado: John Ensign
Utah: open seat
Wyoming: Mary Ruggiero-Smith  

Tentative 2009 Show committee:

Teri Whalen
John Ensign

The Gentle Giant

The Leonberger is a steady, affectionate, giant breed dog.  Read on to learn more about this special breed of dog....

Temperament and socialization:  Our Leos are steadfast, faithful, and affectionate.   They are very much a family dog, and thrive in an active, engaging environment where they can tightly integrate into the family.  They are used in therapy and rescue, and have extraordinary intelligence.  Given the size and shear strength of a Leonberger, it is an absolute must that they receive continuous training and socialization through their early years.  Leonbergers, while steady, are also very sensitive to family dynamics, and as such thrive best in a grounded and healthy family situation.  Leos attach to the family, and quickly integrate.  With solid training and socialization, they can serve a number of duties outside of the family pet including therapy, water and mountain rescue, as well as standard conformation, agility, and obedience oriented activities.  Leos are incredibly faithful and loyal and consider themselves one of the family.  In general they are very mild mannered and are incredibly friendly to others, children, and other pets.  Most have an inordinant amount of patience for children, and are considered to be child safe.

A great write up on Leonberger temperament can be found on the LCA Characteristics and Temperament page.

Activity: Leonbergers more often than not are much higher energy than other giant breed dogs.  This means they need room to move, and are best suited to large yards.  Leos need to be walked, talked, and engaged.  There is nothing more worrisome than a 160lb adolescent male dog who is bored out of his mind and stuck inside a house all day.  Save yourself, save the dog, if you cannot commit to giving a Leo the exercise and play it will need, then look to another breed of dog.  Leos typically love water, in fact they have webbed feet and typically excel at swimming.  Overall energy levels vary, some are more active than others rangefrom average energy to turbo mode.  And finally, a Leos #1 exercise usually involves a sport called "counter surfing", i wont wreck the surprise for you, i'll keep you guessing.

To learn more about working Leonbergers, please visit the LCA Working Leos page.

Health: Leonbergers being the large dogs they are do suffer from typical giant breed dogs issues including skeletal related issues.  The smartest thing you could ever do to ensure that any Leonberger you are lucky enough to be owned by is to make sure that you get your Leo from a reputable LCA Leonberger breeder.  Well bred Leonbergers usuallly have an 8-9 year life span and lead healthy lives.  Being giant dogs, if Leonbergers are spayed/neutered before the growth plates close at approximately 2 years of age, the dogs will gain extra height, weakening and thinning the bones which can present skeletal issues later in life.  Leonbergers are big make no mistake and much stronger than most people including big burly men.

For more health related specifics visit the LeoWatch website or the LCA Leonberger heatlh page.

Grooming:  Imagine a large buffalo molting in your living room twice a year.  All joking aside, this dog sheds year round and by the pound.  In the Spring there will be a large molt, litterally pounds of hair.  It will get everywhere, there is no avoiding it, give up now.  If you like to wear black clothing, good luck!  In early Winter they will shed their Summer coat and put on a terrific looking Winter coat.  Again, hair everywhere.  Being dogs, they require all the usual dog fanfare, clipping nails (1inch+), cleaning teeth (1inch+), and a bath once in a while.  Leonbergers have double coats, one is rougher than the other and water proof.  Having long coats, they will quickly mat if you do not give them a thorough brushing once or twice a week.

Abode:  Leos, being the active giant breed dogs that they are will take their toll on your house.  They are about as kind to a house as a buffalo would be indoors.  They will track in and out everything you can possibly imagine.  A 150lb dog with 1 inch claws is not so good for carpet... just my opinion, but take it for what it is worth!  When they are young and teething, be sure to keep their mouths occupied, though this is true for all pups regardless of breed.  They have incredibly strong jaws and strong wills when motivated which can lead to remodeling if they are not in a stable environment.

Finding a reputable breeder:  Leonbergers are an uncommonly rare breed of dog, luckily for you, the LCA has had a breeding program for kennels for over a decade.  To find great breeder and kennel, and consequently a great dog, please visit our Leonberger Breeder and Kennel page.

In closing...

If you want a 150lb giant dog who thinks its a 5lb lap dog, who will follow you everywhere including the bathroom and shower, who is strong enough to pull a full grown man to shore, who will shed enough hair to kickstart your knitting career, and who will return every ounce of love and affection given it 10 fold, then maybe, just maybe this breed is for you.  If you have more questions about our beloved breed, we encourage you to join our website and poke through the forums looking for other information, or answers to questions.  Who knows, you migh even wind up an LCA and RMLC member!

Please visit THE source for Leo information on the web, our parent club website:  Leonberger Club of America website.