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The Story of the Comeback Kid: FC-AFC Good Idea’s Whoa Nellie Wins National Amateur Retriever Championship
By Josh Hagy
Castle Rock Ranch is located just off Interstate 80 after entering eastern Utah from Wyoming, at an interchange about 100 miles before Salt Lake City. This seemingly remote location was the site of the 2007 National Amateur Retriever Championship and provided the backdrop for one of the most impressive comebacks in the history of retrieving.
After ten tests over seven days, FC-AFC Good Idea’s Whoa Nellie, or Nellie for short owned by Brenda Little and Ken Neil–also her handler—emerged from the pack of 111 competitors to win the championship with a near-perfect run just months after surgery to repair a torn ACL. “She’s an amazing animal,” said Brenda. “We’re really proud of her,”
The National Amateur Retriever Championship consisted of ten different tests designed by the judges. According to Ken, the tests were definitely challenging. “The tests were very well designed by the judges. They challenged the dog from the very beginning. As we moved on through the tests, they got more and more difficult…they got tougher and tougher.” Not only were the tests an obstacle themselves, but the terrain of the ranch proved to be an added challenge for the contestants. “The ranch was huge,” said Ken. “Ranches out west are just huge. It was a very harsh but picturesque landscape.” The tests were spread out across the landscape; with five taking place on one half of the ranch and the final five on the Castle Rock end of the ranch in what the contestants nicknamed “Death Valley.” The valley took a definite toll on the field. The sixth series was particularly difficult. “The sixth series was a triple. You ran halfway up the side of the valley, down into the valley and up the other side. It was tough,” explained Ken. And the tests only got harder as the trial progressed.
“The seventh was a very well thought out water blind that took a tremendous toll on the field,” said Ken. “The eighth, ninth and tenth were all quads that took us down the valley, all the way across the valley floor and up the other side. There was even sage brush and running water. It was a very arduous set of tests,” but Nellie performed those tests to near perfection.
At the beginning of the trial, the field consisted of 111 dogs. After only three tests, dogs quickly began dropping from the field. In fact, by the final test, there were only fourteen dogs left, including Nellie. “She just got better and better,” said Ken. “It wasn’t a perfect run, but it wasn’t far from it.” Of the fourteen dogs left in the last series, only six of the dogs were clean—they hadn’t faced any difficulty that required their handler’s assistance.
The last series consisted of three fliers and one dead bird. “The most difficult bird was the dead cock pheasant that was thrown into the sage at 388 yards out. After three fliers, you then had to go out and get this last bird,” explained Ken. Five of the dogs handled on that bird in particular, but Nellie remained clean through the test. “In the last series, Nellie watched the four birds go down. When she returned to the line with each bird and lined up for the next, I looked down at her and just said ‘Nellie!’ She knew exactly where to go get them.” Nellie went out and put that last cock pheasant between her feet and the judges awarded her the Championship. Her performance was nothing short of amazing.
While weekend trials are challenging enough, the rigors of a weeklong trial are much greater. “For dogs to hold together for four series in a weekend trial is one thing. To do it for ten series for seven days without coming apart at the seams someplace or making a serious mistake is just amazing,” said Ken. Nellie’s run through the Championship is even more amazing when you consider the fact that it was her first run of the year since she had recovered from her ACL surgery only months earlier.
Nellie first showed signs of her injury after finishing a National Trial in St. Louis, Missouri in November. “We don’t know exactly what caused it,” explained Ken. “When she was at the National Open in St. Louis last November she showed tenderness in her left rear leg and we rested her for about a month. Then we ran a couple trials and she seemed to be fine.” It was during training after those trials that Ken and Brenda began to suspect something more serious was wrong with Nellie. “After she would run a test in training, that evening we would notice she was showing soreness in her leg, and then she started limping after lying down and being immobile for a while. She would get out of her kennel and it would be like her leg was almost asleep. After she walked around a little bit, she would be able to run.” Concerned for her welfare, Brenda and Ken sought help.
They took Nellie to see Dr. John Sherman, a specialist in Raleigh, North Carolina. He told them that Nellie had a partial tear in the ACL of her left rear leg. Once the diagnosis was made, Nellie underwent surgery to repair the tear during the first week of March. As a result, Nellie had precious little training time to prepare for the National. “She had surgery and then she was in rehab and we didn’t get to train at all until four weeks before the National. We picked her up May 8 and trained her for two weeks every other day and then we had the pre-national training for a week in the area where the trail was to be held.” said Ken. Without much preparation time before the trial, Nellie fell back on everything she learned from a lifetime of love and training with Ken and Brenda.
Nellie was just 49 days old when she came into Brenda and Ken’s lives. Once before, they had lost a black Lab at a fairly young age from Lyme disease and they were interested in owning another. That interest coincided with a budding curiosity about field trails and field trial dogs. “We called Alex Washburn and told her we’d like to get a field trial dog. At Alex’s suggestion we went to our first trial in Gainesville, Florida and Kenny fell in love with it,” Brenda recalled. Of course, the next step was to find a field trial dog.
Ken and Brenda found a litter advertised in the Field Trial News and immediately called the owners. “They wanted way too much money for what we thought was just going to be a pet. But to make a long story short, we worked out a deal and had her flown to us the next day from Georgia.” For Ken, Brenda and Nellie, it was love at first sight. “We took her home and put her out in the backyard. She just went crazy,” laughs Brenda. The training began in earnest shortly after Nellie’s arrival.
Ken and Brenda started training her, but when Nellie reached the age of 17 months they realized that they needed some outside help. They turned to Alan Pleasant, a professional trainer, who took an important hand in training Nellie. “We had to stay away for six months while he trained her,” said Brenda. “But everything worked out. Kenny’s been working with her and Alan ever since.” Nellie is now seven and her lifetime of training has obviously paid off.
This year’s Championship marked the third time Nellie finished a National, and it was an extremely impressive finish. “Her first trial of the year and she won it. [And] She was out for the whole spring. It wasn’t a perfect trial but it was a strong, consistent performance. She’s an amazing animal. When you have big long tests, that’s kind of playing her game and she can go out and do those amazing long marks,” said Ken. “We are extremely proud of her,” added Brenda. “She’s a great dog and she even sleeps on the bed with us every night.” It sounds like the perfect place to come back home to—especially for a National Champion.
Tail End:
If you’d like to learn more about field trials, we invite you to visit the following links:
Working Retriever Central
All Labs’ Field Glossary
The American Kennel Club (AKC)
Field Trial Rules and Standard Procedures for Retrievers
Retriever Journal
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