I was waiting for the right moment to import semen from this nice male for future breeding’s with my girl’s. In the mean time Ralissa kennels had a litter of puppies with their female, Carmen. One day I just happened to go to the Ralissa website and was surprised to see that they had bred and puppies were on the ground! Picture’s were up on the website of the adorable babies.

In those photos, I saw a really nice male that I liked. I expressed to Stig that I was looking for a nice male to add to my kennel. He wondered if I liked the male they had in the litter named Gold. I said, If you can sell me Gold I would be very happy.

I contacted my good friend Wendy Jones, to see if she would like to co-own a puppy with me. She said, Yes!, so instead of importing semen from Ralissa, we imported Mr. Gold

(otherwise known as Ralissa’s Christmas Star of Norway or Odin).

Stig helped me contact another future puppy owner who lived in Georgia, Brenda Carlton. She said she would bring Odin back to the states with her when she picked up new her new puppy from Stig.

I left my home very early one January morning. The drive to Atlanta, Georgia is approximately 1500 miles. I drove it in twelve hours, and that included stopping for gas and breakfast. My step-daughter, Allison, also rode along. I was so glad she did, because I didn’t want to lock Odin in a crate for the ride home. Allison laid with Odin in the back of the car for the whole trip home. We stopped only for gas and he was such a good puppy!

I promised Stig that I would show Odin and make him famous. Sticking to my word, I started Odin in both obedience classes and show classes at three months. He also started going to his first shows at that age. Some of the shows that the United Kennel Club (UKC) sponsors also offer non-license puppy 3-6 months. We weren’t able to show him for very long because Odin came down with Panosteitis. Some days he could hardly walk without pain. I got suggestions from my friend that I buy my raw food from (to feed my dogs) and immediately put him on Vitamin C and Chondrotin Glucosamine.

As weeks passed Odin got worse, so back to the vet we went. He thought it might be Odin’s elbow and that he would need surgery. Two weeks later we went to set up for surgery.

But this week he was limping on the opposite leg. The vet and I looked at each other and then we knew it was still just the Panosteitis, and surgery would not be needed. Oh Thank God!

Due to the Panosteitis, we kept Odin at home for most of his first year. Finally, around his first birthday the Panosteitis finally disappeared. Then we were able to begin showing him! Soon he was a UKC Champion and racking up points towards his Leonberger Club of America (LCA) championship and Top Leo awards.

In 2006 Odin was the LCA’s #3 Top Leonberger. Odin was winning many shows against his housemates and other regional Leonberger’s in 2007. He was getting group placements at most shows and even a few Best in Shows. Also in 2007, Odin earned the most Top Leo points ever awarded by the LCA since they started this award. Odin had 268 points - the next dog was at least 100 points behind him. He became the #1 Leonberger in 2007 for both the LCA & UKC.

The Top 10 dogs of each breed are invited to the UKC Premier show. This year we had five Leonberger’s show up for this event. Even Odin’s other owner, Wendy Jones, was able to drive up from Texas to see him in the show. I was showing one of my females. My friend Lora showed Jade, my female who won last year. I was expecting a friend to come show Odin, but she was too busy to help come ring time. I picked Lora’s mom out of the crowd and handed Odin’s leash over to her. She was not dressed to show as she wasn’t planning on going into the ring, but she went out anyway. The judge picked Odin for Best of Breed and my female Fitzy for reserve.

From there the Best of Breed dogs go to the semi-finals. They put twenty dogs in each ring and mix up the groups so you are competing against all different kinds of breeds that normally you would not compete against. A different judge then has to pick out four dogs.

I had Lora show Odin because she looks very professional and shows him like a dream. I’d like to tell you a little about Lora. Lora was one of the Junior handlers I had the privilege of judging when I was a judging Juniors for UKC, and she has always helped me show my dogs when I show up with several dogs and need to have them in the ring at the same time. She is twenty years old now.

Odin made the cut!! I was very surprised and even told the other people next to me I didn’t even see the judge look at him. The next evening they take the twenty finalists and have a UKC version of Westminster (a black tie event) for that show. They have the dogs show to three different judges who give the dog a score. After all the dogs are shown they tally up the scores and announce the Top Ten dogs in the country. There were a total of 481 dogs that competed towards this point in the competition..

Odin’s name was announced for tenth place. What an honor! Odin was the first male Leonberger in the United States to ever make it to the finals and even place. Last year my Jade was the first Leonberger ever to make it to the finals and was in ninth place.

That UKC show was suppose to be his last show and he was to retire to stud. Since the Leonberger is now in the AKC miscellaneous class, we will be taking Odin to some of those shows this year. He had his first breeding on Aug 20^th to a local Leonberger female. His first AKC show will be in a few weeks.

We love Odin very much and appreciate Ralissa kennel’s for making it all possible by letting us own such a nice boy.

 Ralissa’s Christmas Star of Norway

United Kennel Club Grand Champion

Leonberger Club of America Champion