Contact Us
For further information about Newfound Friends or any general enquiries please contact us or download our new leaflet here.
Full colour printed leaflets are available upon request, subject to you providing a stamped addressed DL sized envelope, sent to the following address:
Days Cottage, Clevedon Lane, Clapton In Gordano. BS20 7RH
Email us at: pugnewfs@btinternet.com
Telephone: 01275 849732 , Fax: 01275 817887
WHIZZ's STORY an edited extract from Jan Bondeson's book "Amazing Dogs"
He might not have the looks of David Hasselhoff or Pamela Anderson, but the 13-stone Newfoundland dog Whizz is still the ultimate four-legged lifeguard. Whereas the pampered Baywatch actors would probably have objected to leaping into the freezing cold water in the Bristol Channel and towing a drowning person to safety, that is just another day’s work for Whizz, who loves being in the water. He has double coats of fur and is insulated from the cold water; the oily outer coat makes him more buoyant. His webbed feet make him an excellent swimmer.
The remarkably intelligent Whizz is likely to be Britain’s finest professional water rescue dog. Once, when going for a walk near Clevedon, Whizz darted off into the bushes, to save an Irish setter named Topper, who had fallen into a disused water tank. Just like he had been taught, Whizz plunged into the tank, resolutely grabbed Topper by the scruff of his neck, and pulled him to safety. A dog saving the life of another is always news, at least in Britain, and Whizz was featured in all the evening newspapers; in one of the photographs, a rather apprehensive-looking Topper was depicted seated next to the hulking Newfoundland.Whizz has many times been featured on TV, and he regularly makes charity appearances to show off his skills. He leaps into the water with alacrity, and swims with his powerful, webbed feet to perform the rescue. Whizz belongs to the Newfound Friends water rescue display team which regularly performs at various events. Whizz and his fellow Newfoundlands have earned more than £750 000 for charity, and the dogs also have a second career as hospital therapy dogs. Whizz is a veteran performer at the Bristol or Cardiff harbour festivals, and in July 2010, a number of City workers were relieved of a charity donation of £500 each to be saved from the Thames by Whizz and his four-legged colleagues.
In 1902, the Paris police set up a patrol of Newfoundland dogs to save people from drowning in the Seine, albeit with modest results. Many Newfoundland dogs have since been successfully trained as professional water rescue dogs. Both in France and in Italy, Newfoundland dogs are patrolling the beaches. The Italian school for lifesaving dogs has a formidable force of Labradors and Newfoundlands, some of them trained to jump out from a helicopter to save swimmers in difficulties. In an amazing story from 1995, vouched for by National Geographic magazine, a 10-month old Newfoundland named Boo was taken out for a stroll by his master, along the Yuba River in Northern California. When Boo, who entirely lacked water rescue training, saw a man desperately trying to stay afloat in the swollen current, he leapt into the water and pulled him safely to shore. The man turned out to be a deaf-mute who had fallen into the water while gold-dredging. Whizz and the other life-saving Newfoundland dogs are a reminder of an important piece of canine history.
Latest Images
