Leonberger University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland In the 1830s, Heinrich Essig, a dog breeder and seller and mayor of the town of Leonberg near Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, claimed to have created the Leonberger by crossing a female Landseer Newfoundland with a "barry" male from the Great St. Bernard Hospice and Monastery (which would later create the Saint Bernard breed). Later, according to Essig, a Pyrenean Mountain Dog was added, resulting in very large dogs with the long, white coats that were the fashion for the time, and pleasant temperament. The first dogs registered as Leonbergers were born in 1846 and
Molossus (dog) the English Mastiff, St. Bernard, Great Pyrenees, Rottweiler, Great Dane, Newfoundland, Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, Macedonian Šarplaninec, and Bernese Mountain Dog and its most direct relative, the Neapolitan Mastiff. Dogs were used by the Epirotan tribes in war, and were undoubtedly used much earlier in history. The Roman Empire, starting with Marcus Aurelius, also used dogs in combat. The Romans trained the Molossian dog (or "canis molossus") specifically for battle, often coating them in protective spiked metal collars and mail armor, arranging them into attack formations. Some scholars contend the Molossus was used by the Ancient Greeks for fighting. Described