Bosco puts a bite in dead wood - News, Notes & Quotes - bowler Steve Neff's dog Bosco collects fallen bowling pins - Brief Article

Bowling Digest, June, 2002 by Lydia Rypcinski

MAYBE "A HERO AIN'T nothing but a sandwich," but Steve Neff knows that Bosco is more than just a chocolate-flavored drink mix.

Bosco, Neff's six-year-old chocolate-brown Labrador retriever, has gained fame in and out of the bowling world as a four-legged pin-chaser. In fact, the four-time national and four-time senior PBA champion happily admits his doggy has probably had more TV face time the past few years than he has.

"I always wanted a dog once I got married and had kids," Neff says. "One of my bowlers here at Neffer's [the bowling center Neff owns in Homosassa Springs, Fla.] knew of a veterinarian in Alabama who breeds Labs, and I got Bosco from him."

Neff started bringing Bosco to work with him while the dog was still a puppy, and one of the tricks Neff taught Bosco was to fetch a regular-sized, hollow plastic toy pin, the kind that comes with children's play bowling kits. "We have a nice, long concourse," Neff laughs, "and Bosco was a natural." Eventually, he started placing the toy in the gutter, a foot or two past the foul line. Although Bosco had been trained never to walk across the foul line, he realized he could get the pin--and earn a treat--if he put his front paws into the gutter and reached out to grab the pin.

Soon Neff started putting the pin farther down the lane, and Bosco learned to walk in the gutter with all four legs to retrieve it.

"Now, whenever we have dead wood in the gutter, in front of the rack, my league bowlers all start calling for Bosco to come and clear it out. He walks down the gutter, picks up the pin, brings it back, and places it behind the front counter; then he gets a treat."

There's a negative side to Bosco's good work, though. "He's too fat," Neff says. "Everyone gives him pizza and French fries to thank him for getting the pin."

Bosco's lent his services to a women's pro tournament hosted by the Kegel Foundation in Sebring, Fla., (Neff does project work with Kegel) and has become a media darling of sorts, thanks to an article that appeared in The Tampa Tribune about four years ago. "He got a front-page photo, with more pictures on the back page," explains Neff.

"From there, our local Fox TV affiliate picked up the story and did a piece--the first one with an animal--for its `Fox Folks' segment. Then my sister called me from Chicago to say she saw the piece on the Fox affiliate up there; apparently, Fox sent the piece to its affiliates all over the country.

"Next thing I knew, "The Maury Povich Show" is flying us all to New York for an appearance. Maury showed the Fox clip and had Bosco retrieve a pin from the studio audience. I've got Bosco's royalty check from that appearance framed and hanging in the bar.

"Then the `America's Greatest Pets' show did a piece on Bosco, and [cable network] Animal Planet came and filmed him for its `K-9 to 5: Working Dogs' show. They rerun the show about once a quarter, and they even use Bosco to promote the show on other networks, like the Discovery Channel. We've had a lot of fun with the whole thing."

Neff is now thinking of training Bosco to be a waiter, too. "We could sew a little vest with pockets for him, and train him to bring orders back and forth from the bar," he muses. He also wants to send Bosco's video resume to NBC, which airs the bowling-themed TV show "Ed," and propose a story line that includes Bosco. "Maybe it could be something where the pins keep disappearing and nobody suspects the dog."

And don't be surprised if you see Bosco doing his thing some Sunday afternoon during a halftime show at Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Come to think of it, maybe the Bucs could use Bosco in the backfield. Four legs are always harder to trip up than two.