| Approximately three
years ago, I contacted Ralissa kennels about their male,
Caesar.
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 20th 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
Rare Heirs Champion |
