Meet Teddy the 17-year-old Surfing Dog

Meet Bondi's favourite good luck charm - a 17-year-old "pedigree bitser" with a penchant for surfing. Locals have taken to patting "Teddy the Bondi Wonder Dog" for good luck at the TAB, for which he appeared in a recent ad campaign. He even has his own MySpace, possibly the first canine involved in the youth network phenomenon. (Actually, at 119 in dog years, he is probably the oldest MySpacer.)

"He's just got something about him," Teddy's owner, abseiling instructor Roderick Millner, said. "He has this amazing ability to make people relax and they pat him for luck." And it works, apparently.

Mr. Millner said he encouraged people who won money after patting the pooch to send 10 per cent of the takings to the RSPCA. "That's where I got him from. People are starting to send money. The locals are charity oriented," he said.

Teddy was unavailable for comment yesterday but discusses himself at length on his MySpace page. Listing his star sign as Virgo and with a total of three online MySpace friends, Teddy writes: "I am an elderly gent but most people think I'm younger. I have a great sense of style and many people think I am regal in my ways. The Egyptian pharaoh dog has been likened to myself."

Teddy also says he loves riding motorbikes and surfboards, and that his parentage is similarly catholic, probably an English bull terrier and a greyhound.

[Source: The Daily Telegraph]