The textpassage on the left is an 
old poem about dogs from a
 Mr. Curt Demmig, Dresden

A Leonberger at Cruft Dog Show 1951

The biggest sensation at Cruft's was a Leonberger (mentioned in catalogue).
An engl. soldier Mr. Gover bought this dog from a farmer at the Austrian-Italian boarder, as 
Mr. Gover felt in love at first sight.
All the dogs kept by this farmer had been tied up, waiting to be put down for the pur-
pose of "pro-
ducing soap" !!!!

Mr. Gover later bought Jasminka v.d. Heidekaten (Germany, from one of the breeders 
we have to be grateful too, as this lady was one who brought the breed through 
2nd WW).

And - Mr. Gover did breeding - this must been happend between 1945 and 1951.

There is also mentioned that he had a lot of requests from the USA, much more then he could ever breed.

English magazines and newspapers are said to have mentioned this "Love-Story".

This info is out from the Chronik, made by Karl Meier, Kynologische Sammlung, Ansbach and his sources are old prints from the former Leonberger-Club-Archives
and mainly (the bigger part of all info) out from his own "Kynologische Sammlung".

Mr. Meier himself is a "collector of cynological facts, prints, pics - all breeds" and he wrote a book which contains 
a lot of information on various breeds (beginning
in the 19th century up to nowadays). 
Therefore Mr. Meier himself was a very good
source for the Leonberger Club to search out the Leonberger's history - and Mr. Meier got some info 
from the Leonberger Club, mixed it together with his
collection - and out of this the 
"Leonberger Chronik" was made.

Without all the old prints and pic's and information 
this "Chronik" would have been
a rather "poor" script.

Therefore - credit has to be given to all the President's 
and Chairman's of the former Leonberger Clubs 
(the first one founded in 1891, DCLH founded June
10, 1948) and to the individuals (Leo-breeders an -lovers) who brought the breed over the dangerous times of 
First and Second World War !!!

Leo-Friends 
in UK and USA:

Please  hurry up and search out some more on this. There must be something, in engl. newspapers ...and there should also be a way to find out which US-people ordered Leos from 
Mr. Gover UK.

It is the Leo-History of EACH 
Leonberger friend, but this is esp. 
a part of UK- and US-history !!!