How it all began….
At a URC test meeting in 1993 a suggestion was made by Sue Brothers and Renie Neeves that we held a “fun” test for nervous beginners. As I had the space it was decided to hold it here at home and so it was that on we had 12 nervous “runners” in what was to become our “Fundog” day. I remember it rained and we all came indoors for a quick lunch. We raised the heady sum of £67.41 which everyone at the time thought could go to “Children in Need”. FUNDOG DAY was born!!
A year went by and at various gatherings I was asked if we would be repeating the day. I had not really thought about it but after some persuasion we decided to hold another day for charity, as this was another good reason alongside getting people over their nerves. So in 1995 we again staged our “Fundog” day and raised a total of £142.22 which was voted to go to the charity “Libearty” to help free dancing bears in Greece and Turkey.
In 1996 the pressure was on to make a bigger and better effort with the emphasis on fun and charity. Fundog Day now seemed to be here to stay and people who had come before would ask not to be forgotten on the next years’ invitation. We came up with a format of having teams of three, a beginner, a novice and a more experienced person who would act as “team leader” and plan the “strategy”! It was all good fun with mostly the blind leading the blind” At the end of the day the amount of £177.50 had been raised and this year the vote went to The Cinnamon Trust , a charity which helps find homes or place animals left behind, when their owners either cannot look after them anymore, or die.
1997 arrived and I was advised to seek Kennel Club permission to hold the now annual Fundog event as it involved judges of some standing, albeit for fun and still for charity. Thankfully the Kennel Club recognised the event and gave permission.
Renie Neeves was ever active in finding and organising our judges and had a wonderful idea to have the judges dressed up as dogs doing the retrieving! This was SUCH fun and people were in stitches watching as well as competing!
I believe we had 30 “runners” this year and many generous spectators who together raised the whopping total of £292.32.. This time the hands raised on the vote went to Hearing Dogs for Deaf People which has continued from strength to strength.
In 1998 the same format was followed with a by now loyal following of supporters who were ever eager to have fun and make fools of themselves, and at the same time enjoying working their dogs without the pressure of a serious competition. We included lunch with the cost of the day and also a raffle. This time 36 people took part making 12 teams of 3, the weather was lovely and again, through all the generosity, we raised the wonderful total of £450.30 which this year was voted to Canine Partners for Independence , another charity in its growing phase, helping people with disabilities.
1999 arrived and the pressure was on to make each day even more successfull than the last. Without the eagerness of all the participants, this of course would be impossible and so a HUGE thank you must always go to those who join in and make the day go smoothly. This includes the very important people in the “background” who do all the mundane jobs like throwing dummies, running around giving the judges well earned cups of tea and of course the kitchen persons! This particular year it fell to Martin, my husband, and I think his words still echo…”never again”!!!! We had more people than ever and so if one counted the spectators and families egging on the “runners” I think he made lunch fo 86 people!
The day went wonderfully well and by now we had a small sponsorship from “Oscar” pet foods, with Jim Mayett bringing his stand and making lots of new contacts. Bill Greenwood, a veteran handler known in all of the clubs, donated prizes for the best puppy, and prizes were also given to the “best looking dog and bitch” after a small “show” in the back garden during lunch.
With all the effort, the grand total of £541.00 was raised and following the recent and terrible earthquake in Turkey WSPA was the charity voted to receive our help, rescuing animals that had been displaced, injured or abandoned in that region.
And so here we were in the Millenium year of 2000 and it seemed that everyone was determined to make it a year to remember! Although the format for the day remained the same we introduced a silent auction with some quite considerable items to be bid for, not the least a brand new microwave oven donated very kindly by my step daughter Leah’s company Symphony.
Cavan Deacy, Vanessa’s husband also did a fantastic cartoon of a pheasant shoot, and this item alone went for £100.00!! Copies of it were also sold. The kitchen ladies this year catered for nearly 100 people, the weather was once again kind and a mammoth total was reached of £900.00 ! The show of hands this year was in favour of Canine Partners for Independence.
With the awful year that 2001 was to be bringing foot and mouth disease to many parts of the country and devastation to so many farmers and smallholders, it was no small wonder that the gundog community shared in commiserating with those in the countryside whose lives were being changed. Meetings had to be cancelled and many of the outings that one tends to take for granted , had to be carefully considered before starting out.
As a result , a lot of fixtures were cancelled, from race meetings , to Crufts and County Shows to local farmers markets and of course dog training sessions.
Fundog day was going to have to wait and it was during this time that we decided that bi-annually would not be such a bad thing as it would give us time to “re-stoke”. Somehow the old proverb “out of sight, out of mind” came true, and another year , 2002, went by.
At the beginning of 2003 I had many requests to re-instate “Fundog Day” and so I sought permission once again from the KC, and it was granted.
On August 30th 2003 we held another day for charity, it all ran like clock work with many many helpers, and another silent auction, The biggest item very generously donated through Greg Revell was a poly tunnel greenhouse, a very generous act from Clovis Lande of Paddock Wood. It may make you smile when I tell you that Martin bought this for our garden!!
At the end of the day when the tally was counted we had raised another £900. The show of hands once more donated this money to Canine Partners.
This morning, 29/03/05, I have just received confirmation of permission to hold another Fundog Day this year on SATURDAY AUGUST 20th!
WATCH THIS SPACE !!!!!!!
to be continued!……..
UPDATE!!!
PLEASE CLICK THIS LINK FOR DETAILS OF THE DAY!
Fundog Day 2005
This was our 9th fundog day and what a day it turned out to be! Sandwiched between two days of rain, the Friday being the wettest by far, and with my spirits sinking the wetter I became, Brian, Martin and myself were still erecting the obstacle course on Friday afternoon. I wondered whether anyone would turn up on the Saturday morning!
I need not have worried because not only did the sun come out but everyone came, which meant a full compliment of 11 teams of three, each with a team leader. This year we had 6 “tests” and so of course 6 judges. The obstacle course was judged by John Wright, the “show” by Sandra Thompson, the hunt the cuddly toy! by Sheila Pomfrett-Wade , the walk-up by Sue Redshaw, the fancy dress scurry by Gay Marshall and the water by Roger Wade.
Much hilarity accompanied the fancy dress and Roger did his own impression by wearing the most outrageous henna wig! During lunch hour Lyn Donaldson, a well known championship show judge, took 9 entrants and assessed them for their KC Good Citizen Bronze Award and they all passed! After lunch she then judged the puppy show and the adult show and our huge thanks go to her for all the effort and encouragement she put into the day.
Also , I don’t know what we would have done without our “kitchen “ladies, Clare and Carol who worked like Trojans to feed all of us! And of course I think the day would just not have happened without all the help from my lovely step daughter Leah who put weeks of time and energy into twisting sponsers arms and helping me. Brian worked tirelessly all day as did Vanessa. Russell and Stephan were roped in at the last minute and took charge of the raffle, raising an amazing £197 for the day!
At this moment I have three puppy results to hand. 1st Puppy Laura Martin with Bindi and 2nd Wendy Harrison with Alice. 3rd Sue Neal with Romi and 4th escapes me at the moment!
Adult was won by Quincy a springer spaniel owned by Vicky Payne our vet, and 5th was the Lab Jasmine owned by Deb Edwards. As soon as I have the other placings I will post them. Can anyone help me on that one? I was busy adding up at the time!
The teams all had fun getting to know one another and competing for all those points! The results were:-
1st The Fantastic Four!
2nd Mixed Bag
3rd Never Mind The Flatcoat
4th The Wasps
5th The Mixed Baggers
Best Adult score of the day was Deb Edwards’ Lab Bitch Jasmine.
Best Puppy score of the day was Julie Hammonds’ Lab Bitch Darcie
Best Flatcoat was Lisa Snow with Chester
Best Vizsla was Greg Revell with Bodi
Best Spaniel was Vicky Payne with Quincy
Best Golden was Rodney with Rajah
Best Labrador was Deb Edwards with Jasmine
Best Sport of the day was “JAZZ” with her spaniel
Best Improved from AGG was JAN ABSULOM with Grouse
Team Leaders Competition was judged by Renie Neeveswho had also spent much of the day making sure that everything ran smoothly. The results were :- tied for 1st and 2nd Norma Muirhead and Mark Lucas. 3rd and 4th tied by Diana Evans and Wendy Harrison and 5th was Eileen Ayling
Altogether a mammoth £1700 was raised by all of you so give yourselves a HUGE round of applause! The 5 charities voted to receive £340 each were:- The Cinnamon Trust,, , Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, Canine Partners, The Dogs Trust and The Animal Health Trust.
Many thanks go to our generous sponsers.
There will be a tenth and FINAL Fundog Day in 2007!
Any results I have left out?
All following photos courtesy of Sue Redshaw. susan.redshaw@virgin.net
Charlie,Charlie & Quincy!
Tally,Champers and Smudge
Biscuit, Teasle and Pluto
Norma’s Naughties during the Fancy Dress Scurry!
Golden Retriever “Casper” waiting his turn
Only 2 months to go till our final Fundog Day!
There are a few places left for competitors but come along anyway and enjoy the day and at the same time support some very worth while charities.
For a copy of the 2007 flyer please click on the link below
FUNDOG DAY AUGUST 18th 2007
Well I have decided that the gods like dogs and doggy people! A WHOLE day without rain this year has to be something special, and special it certainly was, bringing all of you die hards to our 10th and final FUNDOG DAY!
It didn’t start quite so well , with Brians car deciding to not start and Diana being ill the night before, but true to form it was “alright on the night” .
It was so good to see our Group members turning up to have a go and to support the charities and I think that everyone had fun one way or another! There was so much food that I think we could have opened up to the whole of Ashburnham, but most of it found a good home afterwards!
This year we had 12 teams of 4 including some very helpful team leaders (thank you), walking around and completeing 6 “tests”, some pure fun, others slightly more serious.
Our judges for the day were:-
Dick Pettet…obstacle course
Graham Harrison…..the Olympic Rings
Penny Janks….the Team Show
Eileen Ayling….Hunt the Bunny!
Jean Simmons….Fancy Dress
Mark Lucas…Water
Our sincere thanks got to all and of course our stalwart helpers for giving up their day.
The winners of the team event were as follows
1st The Wonder Dogs..DEB, Sara, Julie/Clare Dave
2nd The Labracoats…ANDY, Jack, Jane, Sas
3rd The Desperate Deeds…DI,Kitty, Jo, Anne
4th Beverley’s Bunglers…BEV,Chris,Heidi, Lisa
The Team Leaders Event was won by
1st Joint Di and Gill
2nd Joint Bev, Susie and John
3rd Brenda and Wendy
4th Deb
The Show in the back garden after lunch proved popular and we had 3 classes, Adult, Puppy and Junior Handler
Winner of the Puppy was Tristan with CHAZ
2nd Paula Keeley with her flatcoat
3rd Deb Cavill with Ollie
4th Laura with EMMA
Adult Winner was Di Stevens with Deeds
2nd Rosie?(Spaniel)?
3rd Daphne with Caspar
4th Jane Laws with Bertie
Junior Handler Winner was Paula?
2nd Chloe Surrage
3rd William Lucas
4th Henry Curties
BEST RETRIEVER for the day was Di with DEEDS
BEST HPR ” ” ” ” Ancha with Betyar
BEST SPANIEL ” ” ” ” Dave with Rosie
Best overall Adult dog was DEEDS
Best overall puppy was CHAZ
Reserve Best Dog was CHEDDAR
Altogether you all raised a massive £2250 which is still being reconciled, with money still going out and coming in, what a mammoth effort and how generous you all were! After everything is calculated I think each of our 5 charities will be receiving £415 or thereabouts.
I haven’t even looked at the video yet, so all that still has to be done!
Thank you, thank you all and to those I haven’t mentioned you know who you are.
That really WAS the DEFINITIVE LAST ONE!!!!!
PHEW!!!!!!!
click on the pictures below
