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Old January 7th, 2010, 04:08 AM
MyBirdIsEvil's Avatar
MyBirdIsEvil MyBirdIsEvil is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Missouri
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I don't know much about Leonbergers, but I know some about Berners. How heartbroken would you be if your dog only lived 5-6 yrs? 7-8 years at the most? And before they die they will most likely have a lot of problems with arthritis or other bone/joint problems, therefore vet bills will be high and they will need a lot of help. Those are the problems with Bernese Mountain Dogs. The breed tends to have huge problems with cancer and they're not very long lived. Not that they're not well tempered dogs, but most people don't want to see their dog die that soon.
We have a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, they're related (both sennenhund), but they're not as highly prone to the same health problems and they tend to be longer lived. Our breeder actually said she knows several people that got out of keeping dogs completely because they got into breeding or keeping Bernese Mountain dogs and could not take being heartbroken repeatedly when the dogs died young.
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