Leonburns Leonbergers, Summerhill, RD 1, Rangiora, New Zealand
Dovka came to us in the winter of 2008 from the Drombjornens Kennel in Sweden. He
is predominantly from Norwegian lines. It took me nearly two years to find a suitable,
as far as possible outcross for our girls, but Dovka's litter was the furthest and
best matched I could find. His full registered pedigree name is Drombjornens Bright
Benjamin From Leonburns. Drombjornens means Dream Bears and Dovka is a Russian/Jewish
pet name meaning Little Bear. He most certainly has grown into the cutest most handsome
little bear, and is actually a bit on the small side for a mature male leonberger,
making him our smallest male. However, everything else about him is just great to
make up for it, and his offspring are far from little -
Dovka is proving to be a great sire, and a good match for our girls. At 12 months of age, I thought he was going to stay lion yellow, but six months later he started going very black all over, with a magnificent long mane and long coat. There is no red in his coat, so I would describe his colour best as brown/black. He's got lovely dark eyes and a good black mask, and his temperament is superb. He is quite bombproof out in public and he is not at all phased by visitors to our place either, so a good natured all rounder. The girls love him. He really is the "new kid on the block" and he acts like a real macho male around them.
I tried to mate our Orkje with Triomph a few times over the last couple of years,
but she wouldn't have a bar of him. At first I thought she wasn't ready, and kept
trying, missing out on a litter because of her refusals, until it dawned on me the
following season that she might have an issue with Triomph as a mate. So I brought
out Dovka and presented him to her. Well, you could almost see her face light up
as she spun around and presented herself for mating with an almost audible "YUSSS!!!
He's the one I want :-
The rest is history. Together they have produced some true off white sands as well as lovely dark brown/blacks of great height and soundness. Dovka is also Roma's mate and will soon be used for Shandel's last litter at the end of this year or early next year for our 2012 summer litter. I'm really pleased with Dovka's offspring.
Elsha.