Yoshka came to us right after the New Year, 1998. He was bred by and spent his first 10.5 weeks with Sigrid Cargile in Prundale, California. Together with Kevin, her then 8 year old son, Sigrid did a tremendous job of giving Yoshka and his five litter mates a perfect start into their life. I visited Yoshka about twice a week starting when he was 4.5 weeks old. Because of prior arrangements, we could not pick him up till after all his siblings had left and Sigrid took extra care of training him so we got a crate trained, almost house broken puppy - not a bad deal ;-)

His puppy hood seemed to fly by in no-time. We started training right away with first puppy kindergarten, intermediate classes, moving on to Novice Obidience. Every day he got to play with his littermate Basie, establishing a very special relationship with her. Sooner than I would have liked he became a teenager, lifting his legs and becomming interested in girls. Training became a little more of a challange but we worked through it. Now he has become a handsome man, healthy, athletic, affectioned, and smart. It is amazing what a difference a couple of years make.

Yoshka is the perfect mix of a couch potato and a Turbo-Berger - enough energy to race around with other dogs, thus calm and relaxed at home. He loves to hang out with his Leo friends and family, either chase around the yard, take walks together, do some obidience routines or just relax on the lawn. There are also a few non Leo-friends that are terrific playmates and keep him happy.

Yoshka is a working dog. He has finished his LCA Companion Dog Excellent Title and he is one leg short of his ASCA CDX. He earn the High in Trial at the LCA 2003 Specialty in Healdsburg with 194 points in Open.

At the LCA 2000 Specialty in Seaside, the LCA 2003 Specialty in Healdsburg, as in smaller shows before and after, he proved that he is not just a wonderful working dog but also an excellent representative (show results) of the breed. He earned his chanmpionship title in 2000 and is approved by the Leonberger Club of America for Stud Services (click here for his pedigree with pictures and "Vital Stud Statistics"). In Fall 2001 his first litter was born. Lately Yoshka has been concentrating on Beach Play and being cute!

If you still do not know what kind of dog Yoshka is, go to this page (it is a rather large file so it will take some time to download - if you have seen the center spread in the LeoLetter you do not need to go there ;-).