Former touring pro Steve Neff wanted to put some fun into his life of bowling, and he got a brainstorm from a TV report to bring a novel concept to his bowling center in Homosassa Springs, Florida, 75 miles north of Tampa Bay. The report featured a pet dog at a rural Montana filling station and general store that took money and credit cards from customers pumping gasoline for collection to his owner. The dog would even bring back change to the customers.
Neff thought about training a dog to retrieve pins at his Neffers Bowling Lanes and how it would save him money instead of hiring a human pinchaser. The novelty also would bring in customers. Carrying this concept out to its logical conclusion, the four-time PBA Tour champion decided to train Bosco, his 2-year-old brown Labrador retriever, as his bowling pin retriever.
"I though to myself that since Bosco was a retriever, I could train him to retrieve the pins," said Neff.
Bosco started retrieving the pins in the summer of 1996 when he was six months old. Everyone at the bowling center was captivated by his work.
"When I first got Bosco, I never allowed him past the foul line since I didn’t want him to disturb the action," Neff said. "Then I started training him to retrieve the pins, and he would stop at the line. I started using animal cookies and a plastic pin he always played with in the gutter to retrain him. He couldn’t pick up the real pins because they were too heavy at first. Once he got his back legs into the gutter, there was no stopping him."
Neff says his dog became adept at picking up pins as the regular league season ended when Bosco was a year old.
"Now he walks up and down the lanes soliciting for food wherever he could get it, and even customers who don’t like dogs have grown to love him," Neff said. "Bosco has gotten so good at it that he scans the lanes for out-of-range pins and runs to fetch them himself automatically. The first time he ever did this on his own, the bowlers were all clapping at Bosco for doing it when I came out to see what happened. He was getting the pins out of the gutter before when I told him to, but that was the first time he did it on his own."
Bosco improved his technique during the trios in the Florida State Tournament at Neffers Lanes. "Lois Kostroski of the state proprietors association introduced the squads and then she introduced Bosco as the very best pin chaser in the state of Florida. Lois yelled, ‘Is Bosco here?’ and he immediately perked up his ears. She then demonstrated his skills by announcing, ‘Bosco, there’s a pin in the gutter!’ He immediately ran to the pin, picked it up and brought it back toward the audience which roared their approval."
Bosco is gaining national recognition through his appearances on the "Extra" entertainment and news program and Kathy Unruh’s "Fox Folks" from the Tampa Bay Fox Network TV station, which was broadcast by local Fox News affiliates nationwide. Bosco is next scheduled to appear on the "Maury" syndicated talk show hosted by Maury Povich.
"I got calls from all over the country," Neff said. "Viewers saw Bosco and me everywhere. One TV news producer in Los Angeles told me he was going to peddle my story all around, and that’s how Maury’s producers found out about it."
Neff believes that no other bowling proprietors have trained any other dogs to chase pins the way Bosco does, but he figures some copycats may emerge since Bosco has been given so much exposure.
Neff plans to use Bosco’s fame as his best friend on the bowling lanes to springboard himself back to the PBA Tour. This time, however, it will be on the senior circuit where he’ll start having fun again next June to atone for the frustrating retirement he had from the regular tour in 1984.
"From 1978 through the early 80s, I didn’t bowl very well because I was thinking about other things," Neff said. "I was not into it enough because I was wondering what I would do when I quit bowling. It wasn’t fun on the tour anymore when the conditions changed, and it was harder to bowl. Bosco has brought the fun back to bowling for me.
"When I turn 50 next June 10, I’d like to start bowling on the senior tour. I could bowl for fun instead of money like I did before on the regular tour. I was better in the earlier years when I bowled for fun. Even when I bowled for action, I did it for the fun of it."
Neff, the 1973 PBA Rookie of the Year, won his first PBA national tournament in 1974 at Detroit before winning the U. S. Open the following year. The 18-year PBA veteran won his other events in 1977 at St. Louis and at Houston in 1978. He purchased his bowling center in 1984, and ownership, not to mention increased knowledge about lane conditions, energized him into bowling better on the tour—the following year, he finished second in the U. S. Open.
Neff plans to open a sports bar with a dog theme in honor of his pin-chasing retriever. He even plans to make his pet a bartender/waiter to complement his talents on the bowling lanes. With Bosco becoming more versatile, who’s to say that "bowling’s going to the dogs" is all that bad a phrase?