Fenrik Never Say Never ADM JDM FDX CDX ET GD SD

My Farewell to my old mate, NED
25th November 2007

It has been sad to watch my boy, Ned, as an “old man”, hobbling on his arthritic feet (due to the past pounding they received on the cleats on dog walks) and obviously not feeling well. His kidneys were failing to remove nitrogen by-products from his blood giving him a big hang-over type of effect. The problem had first become evident when we were at the Adelaide Nationals, six months ago. He was medicateded and put on a special diet, so we have had valuable extra time with him. He sparked up to chase a tennis ball, and he was still enjoying his trips to the dam but in the last week he could no longer compete with the others and his runs down to the dam were now a chore rather than a pleasure. He would stop under a tree and wait for us to collect him on the way back. So it has been a sad pleasure to give him relief, knowing that a dog could not have had a better life.

I hope you are all happy to let me indulge myself with some memories of Ned. He was very much the perfect gentleman – kind, understanding and patient. He appreciated all the affection, he understood if you had to do something painful that there was a reason for it. He was the ONLY dog that ever allowed me to do an ultrasonic scaling of his teeth while lying there fully conscious! But mainly, he was just a great, steady, patient friend.

Ned was the original “Flying Fundog”. He is responsible for my involvement in agility. I will never forget those original days of Canine Fun Sports, before we evolved into agility trainers, when Ned shared his learning of such weird and wonderful obstacles such as the “doggy door” the “flyover tunnel” and the “worm” with his doggy buddies Oscar, Cody, Harvey, Bathmat, Brok and a heap of others, many of whom are now agility addicts.

He was the perfect learner dog for agility. His steadiness meant that he was not a flyer – quick enough to win sometimes, but that was usually when the others all crashed and burnt. But there are two runs with him that I will never forget.

One was on a Denise Agnew course at Brush Farm and the other was in Canberra under Elizabeth White (Barker). For some reason, on these runs, he let go of his usual reserve and just flew and we worked together like he was on a thread of cobweb (that was Liz white’s description after she judged the run.) Perhaps it was true mental telepathy. I think, if we had trained like I train my dogs now, then we would have had a lot more of those runs. But of course, the emphasis we used then was to “train for accuracy and speed will come” rather than “encourage speed and accuracy will come”. And Ned’s great willingness to please meant he took care to make sure he got things right.

One of the other great pleasures given to me by Ned was to watch other people run him. He gave me that pleasure twice at one Armidale trial. Admittedly he was a well seasoned masters dog at the time, but when we gave him to 9 year old Darcy (who is now old enough to have a driver’s licence, I think!) to run a novice course, they did a beautiful clear round including a great front cross. They looked like a well seasoned team together. Darcy also ran Ned at other times in masters class – perhaps not with the same success, but Ned did absolutely everything that Darcy asked.

At the same Armidale trial, Jill Kaldor’s husband, Paul, who had never run a dog before also had a go at that novice course – he was not going to be shown up by a 9 year old. He also had a clear round – we often tell Paul that Ned already knew the course and it had nothing to do with his handling. None-the-less, Paul still claims a perfect agility record.

Ned was always in great demand for child handlers classes. I think he won quite a few such classes for these kids, many of which are now more grown up and taking an interest in continuing in the sport. I also remember Peter Read having a go with Ned – Peter was a judge who had never run a dog. I like to think that Peter gained a new appreciation of what our dogs do as he sent Ned beautifully to an off course tunnel, and then Ned mercifully rescued him from a second mistake.

Of course, I also have to thank Ned for introducing Keith to agility. Because Ned would work equally well for Keith, he got bitten by the bug. I still remember Keith asking if I thought it would be alright for him to get a girl to train too. In fact, I think we can say that there are quite a few people now involved in agility, because of Ned.

Ned’s sense of humour shone in the obedience ring. I don’t think he liked obedience – too boring – he had to spice it up. He never gained his UD, partly because I also found it boring and would not miss an agility trial to go to obedience, and also because of the pranks that Ned played.

The first time in UD he did not realise we were doing the seek back exercise. I had very little chance to practice with helpers, so I always dropped the seek back article myself. In an attempt not to confuse him, I slipped the article to the steward without Ned seeing it. Ned apparently did not understand it was a seek back when I asked him to find it so that was a bomb in my first UD trial.

The next trial was a week later. I showed Ned that I was giving the article to the judge – hopefully, seeing the article would make him realise that although I was not dropping it, it was the seek back he was supposed to do. When I sent him, he raced up to the judge and sat in front of him. The look on his face said – “I know you’ve got it – give it to me – I have to take it back to my mum!” Everyone in the ring just cracked up laughing, including me. We went out and practiced with a second person as judge!

On one other occasion he found a champagne cork on the ground, just before we went in the ring. I took it from him and placed it on the steward’s table. They were already calling my number. When I sent him to find his article, he raced straight over to the table, put his feet up to reach the cork and brought it back to me. What a clever dog – it had my scent on it, didn’t it. And I had obviously lost it. Unfortunately, on that occasion, the judge did not have a sense of humour.

His other pranks included doing the jump both on the way out for the seek back, and retrieving it over the jump, or a quick detour while he was supposed to be heeling, just to do the jump. What do you expect form a dog whose real passion was doing agility.

I have many fond memories of Ned. Some of them intermingle with my memory of Wags – his father. They were both perfect gentlemen, both fanatical ball chasers, and if it involved a swim, all the better. I am very glad that he has lots of pups to carry on his genes, to give their owners equally loving memories, and also so I can be reminded of Ned.

Just a quick précis of Ned’s achievements –
~Ned gained his masters agility title 10 times over.
~He gained his jumping title twice over, but jumping started later in his life.
~At 12 years of age he came out of retirement to gain his GD as SD. He struggled a little, but I don’t think he would have missed it for the world. We only did the gamblers and snooker, because I could choose a path that would avoid a lot of the more strenuous obstacles. And his face lit up to be working again. He loved those occasions when Wollongong ran their veterans class and he could compete.
~He represented NSW on 3 occasions
~He was in the top 3 for the Balder Trophy of several occasions, one year being beaten by just one point.
~He is the father of 3 GSP’s with multiple ADM JDM titles, 6 more with excellent titles and more coming up though the ranks, as well as progeny with show championships, including one grand champion, a flyball champion, gundog working titles, and obedience titles. Not bad for a “laid back” sort of fellow.

Again, I would like to thank everyone for their condolences. Perhaps this would bore other list members, and so should be sent to me privately. But I would love other people to share any specific memories they have of Ned. It certainly helps with the grieving process. I am sad to say farewell to “The Old Fart” but not sorry. It was time to say farewell.