[00:00:01] Speaker A: In this episode, I'm joined by Todd Ingraham, a man who's pushed his body and mind to the limit and well beyond. From cross country runs in high school to pounding the pavement in some of the world's toughest marathons, including Tokyo, Boston, New York and Melbourne, Todd is an elite world class athlete. It's a life built on discipline, service and sheer determination.
After joining the West Australian Police Force K9 unit, Todd would be partnered with Chase, a black Labrador with a loud bark, a work ethic like no other, and an even larger heart.
Chase isn't just a working dog. He's family. He's comfort. He's the quiet strength. In the middle of the storm, he's Todd's mate.
But when motor neuron disease came knocking, everything changed. Todd shares what it's like when the body starts giving out before the spirit does. How it feels to leave a job you love. And why fighting to keep Chase by his side after retirement meant everything.
This isn't a story about giving up. It's about holding on. It's about resilience. The kind forged in silence, in struggle, and in the deep connection forged between a police officer and his canine partner.
My name is John Littlefair and it is the greatest honor to bring you this incredible episode of Never Just a Dog.
Thanks for inviting me into your home.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Of course. My wife mentioned you and I thought it'd be great to promote Chase. He's had a shortened career, so if I can promote him as much as I could. I wanted to have that chance.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: I think he's got a new career in the greeting party. He's quite boisterous. I got that. And then I thought, no, he's a big black Labrador.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: Look past the. Well here, past the bark. He's definitely a big wannabe lap dog.
[00:02:11] Speaker A: Oh, straight away, can I have a cuddle?
[00:02:13] Speaker B: Chase, did he lean into your legs?
[00:02:16] Speaker A: No, I think he was too busy running around. Then he jumped into the back of the van because I think Tina's taken.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: Him for a tee right there. So we normally by this stage we would have taken him down to the park, got the energy out, and then all it is is couch and cuddle times.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: That's such a Labrador thing, isn't it? I checked out your marathon running career. It's pretty impressive. You competed in the World Masters. City to surf here in Perth, I take it? Tokyo Marathon, Berlin Marathon, Boston Marathon, Chicago Marathon, Melbourne Marathon, New York. That's a pretty impressive list of marathons.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, it's not extensive and I've done a few of those two or three times.
Yeah, there's a few other sort of smaller ones I've done in Canada and India and Singapore and a couple of other Japanese ones. But yeah, yeah, we tried to get around and it was our sport and then we used it as a travel opportunity as well.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: The training that goes into that must be epic.
[00:03:17] Speaker B: Yeah, so it's one of those classic things where as an individual, you know, you're the master of your destination. So if you put a little bit in then yeah, you may get to the finish line. So I sort of just kept building up. I knew I could finish a marathon, but it was always how fast and so I ended up doing around about 60 and just tried to adjust your training to see how far you can push your body and how far you could, how far you could take it. Take this sport. When I say sport, you know, your passion I guess. And yeah, I was happy with how far I went as a full time worker and a part time athlete.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: What was the decision to go? Running's my thing.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: Probably back in high school.
A little bit of a funny story where primary school. I was probably a skinny sort of weak kid. Probably wasn't, wasn't last picked but definitely wasn't first picked. Did a few events but in primary school you never ran over say 400, 800 meters and 800 meters was really at the bottom level where I was I could shine. And so in high school we, we were asked to do cross country and so year, year eight, you know, get to high school and we had to do a 3K trial and like all these kids I went to primary school with were in the same high school and all of a sudden I beat them, beat everybody, won the event, no training and you know, maybe, you know, I played T wall and ran around and rode my BMX around and stuff and that's about it. And I remember one of the guys who said you weren't any good in primary school. And I said, I don't know how, I'm good now. So. And then about two weeks later we had a second trial, same, same course, same thing. And a few of the guys thought, hey, this is the guy to chase. And all of a sudden we were having sprint finishes and I was able to get win that one as well. But it was all of a sudden I realized, hey, I like this, you know, I like the challenge. I like, it's me, you know, I don't have to rely on anybody else. I played a lot of team sports, played soccer and T ball and cricket and all of a sudden this sport was sort of like, I can push and I get a reward and. And I like that idea. And I just kept building on it from there. We had a really good PE teacher. She came up to coach and put a bit of time in on weekends and after school training. And my high school was in the A division and so we actually won A division a few times. And so, you know, it was always a bonus when you're in the winning team. And so, you know, just encouraged me to keep on going.
[00:06:02] Speaker A: And you won a couple of marathons as well? A couple of the really large ones, yeah.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: Got lucky a couple of times. Within wa, you know, you could always see who your opposition were and go, okay, well, he's at that level. I think I can match him. State titles were always important to me. Always wanted to compete in the state level. And so the Perth Marathon was the state championship and so I was able. I competed in it four times and had three wins. So it was good to know that, you know, the sport that I had chosen, I was able to, you know, be top of my game within the state. And that was a real big privilege for me.
So, yeah, I was able to win Perth. And then Rottnest Marathon was another one that I was able to win. There was a funny story there in that I. I hadn't really prepared for it. It was sort of a. It's the last marathon on the Perth on the West Australian calendar. And I thought, oh, about two, three weeks out, I thought, oh, I'll go in and I'll see how I go. And it must have. Where my training was and the taper that I had must have been just right for whatever reason, because I always said, I wish I could have bottled how I felt that day. And I. I started the, the race just feeling really good. Went out hard and just got into a really good rhythm. It's four. Sorry. Yeah, four laps of about 10Ks.
Yeah. Just came through with a. With a really solid time for, for state running within WA. It was a sub 230. And that time stood for a long time, maybe two decades.
I felt that way at the time. You know, every now and then people just have a little bit of a break and decide the last minute. And that was my time then. And then the final one that I won was Melbourne, which was a really big surprise. It was a big event. Was always going to go to it and always wanted to race it, but it attracted obviously the Eastern state runners who actually either Lived in Melbourne or come down from Sydney or Brisbane. And I went out with the lead pack and all these top runners were pushing the pace for the first sort of 30K. And without going too much into the race, one by one they whittled off and I was just hanging onto the back pack of the pack. You know, there was like a dozen of us and then there was eight and then there was six and all of a sudden there was, you know, Australian representative Quilty, Sean Quilty. And we, he had a go at up this hill, the final hill before you see the city, which is about 10k's away. And I went with him and we got to the crest of the hill, I said, oh, it's about my time, my turn, little old doctor buddy, have a go. And I surged and broke him. And at this point there was still one runner who had taken it out right at the lead from the gun and he was, he must have been maybe a kilometre in front, you know, sort of 800 meters in front because I could see the lead car and Rob de Castello was on the, on the motorbike there and he was going back and forth. It was sponsored by BMW. So he's on his big BMW and he came back and he goes, he's only three minutes ahead of you, buddy. You know, you can have a go. And I said, oh well, why not? I'll have a shot for the next 10Ks. I chased Jeremy Horner down and with about two, two and a half Ks to go, I caught him and he was shattered because he'd been running all this time, 40 +K's by himself. And I felt like, I felt pretty bad. I think I was quoted in saying I felt like a bit of a mug, but I was on, I was sort of had the momentum so to speak because I'd saved myself a little bit in the earlier part and I was running on fear because I thought Sean was going to run me down as well. And so it was about two K's to go. I went for home because I finished in album Albert park and sort of weaved in amongst the car parks and the back streets. I lost sight of Jeremy a few times and finally there's like a home straight. I talked about these races so long and yeah, that's when I knew I had a chance. All of a sudden I was crossing a line as to win.
C. Veron, who's a four time Olympic champion, he was there, awarded me the trophy from that I, when I trip to New York marathon that was really sort of the beginning of the overseas events for me, they were willing to send me over to New York and I thought, oh, I could put my best foot forward there.
[00:10:40] Speaker A: How did you find New York? I've heard some runners describe that marathon as being really harsh. Is that what you found or.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: It is. I suffered a little bit because I relatively inexperienced, you know, running in Australia, you know, I could handle the heat. And all of a sudden it started at 3 degrees and finished at 3 degrees. Wow. It was cold and I was running in a singlet and I think I had arm warmers and that's it.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: And shorts.
[00:11:06] Speaker B: Shorts of course. And so the winner from memory, he still had his beanie on and a T shirt. And I mean when I say the winner, you know, he ran a sub 210 and I was freezing. I got real cold, got shivers. And part of the battle was I was of running is not. You can train your legs but if your internal body is overheating or getting too cold, that can just shatter your whole day.
I think I ran around a 240 or 245 from memory. And so it was a bit substandard to what I was expecting. But yeah, real learning curve. And I mean I think I, I still came in the top hundred but it was a real, it was hard on the. It was cement as well.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: So.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: So over there, obviously they've got the cold and the snow factor. So they put cement on the roads rather than bitumen. And so over 42k's it can really take pounding into your legs.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: It doesn't have the flex that asphalt can sometimes have like that slight movement.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: Yeah, wow. Exactly. It's a. I wouldn't say, you know, you've got the difference between running on sand to grass to sort of bitumen to cement and they all have a slight, you know, give in them. You know those days the race shoes weren't really, they weren't going minimalist, but they weren't. Hadn't gone to the technology. We've had a real big technology like an uplift, upward lift.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:25] Speaker B: In the last sort of five to 10 years where those days, you know, leaner and Mina was the best way to do it.
[00:12:31] Speaker A: My running career was pre season football down in the lower southwest and that was about it, mate. You're, you're a little bit of a.
[00:12:37] Speaker B: Level above me because New York was going back to New York because that was one of the biggest five at that stage. And all of a sudden it's like, oh, so running these other ones like the London Chicago, Boston, they that was like a feather in your cap, you know, just in our little small world of running. So I thought, you know, I want to go overseas, I want to run marathons, why don't I just do those ones? And funny enough with the times that I was able to achieve it gave me automatic qualifier and I just thought that's how you did it. But now I realize you can do it the hard way. I spend tens of thousands of dollars with going in lotteries and things like that. So I was really fortunate the way I was able to complete. Now it's six, six big majors, so Tokyo as well. So funny enough, I was one of only first six who actually got the first six because they announced Tokyo was going to be one of the big six after the entries closed so people couldn't go do Tokyo and going, oh, I'm going to go get my six star. I just happened to be there and there were six of us who were in that race. So for a while there there was only. I was on a very small list which is now a massive list of people who have completed all six of the majors.
[00:13:47] Speaker A: That's incredible, mate. Was it only running or did you get into cycling and into triathlon as well or that something you weren't sort of drawn to?
[00:13:57] Speaker B: I'll start with the triathlon high school I had this running ability and. And then of course they, they encourage you to do swimming events as well. I wasn't flash swimming. I think I represented the school once in some brass stroke or something. Nothing, no, no flash at all at the swimming and I thought, oh, I'll try and go string together a triathlon. So I did a half ironman at one stage as a 16 year old, but realized it wasn't conducive to good running. Like you had to either give your time up or you know, you're building up your upper body because swimming. And then all of a sudden you got to go and run 20ks with an extra kilo in your chest or whatever. So I just sort of naturally went back to running and my running was still progressing, you know, I was still fighting for state titles or representing the school. And then when I left school I joined the army and I was running for the army. And then when I left the army I was, I came back to WA and I was still grassing with my run and getting faster but also challenging myself with different the new distances that became available.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: How long were you in the armed forces for in Australia?
[00:15:04] Speaker B: So I did me four years and then When I came back to Perth, I joined the reserves and I was up into the reserves until technically February this year. And then so that was always just sort of a. I wouldn't say a side gig, but just a. If I started something, I always wanted to just be loyal to it and maintain it. I was able to, you know, with my physical fitness, I was able to just keep going and trying to be there for the army. Joined a unit called the Pilbar Regiment, which was sort of a home defense. We just observed the coast and read all about it and news and border patrols and all that sort of thing. So it was exciting in that regards because you were getting real live patrols and we went right up into Northern Queensland and northern parts of WA and Northern Territory in the islands, around the Tiwi Islands and all that. Really got to see different parts of Australia and so, yeah, I was happy I transferred over.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: When did you join the West Australian Police Force?
[00:16:01] Speaker B: Basically straight away, I had about. So as soon as I left the army, came back to wa, I did a associate diploma at uni in police studies and that guy that sort of fast tracked me into the police and so sort of put me on a short list. And it was part of the course that you finished the six months training and then you. You got your diploma and also got into the police. So I got myself a career.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: And your first role within the police force when you first joined?
[00:16:27] Speaker B: I was 21 joined. So I did my six months at Maylands at that stage. That's when the academy was during your probationary period. You get about four to six months in different locations, give you a feel of different fields. There was traffic and general duties and maybe a small specialized unit, sort of a dog's body in there. But you can see how the big boys work. Yeah, so I bounced around the western suburbs a bit. So I was Leaderville and Fremantle and I did a skin to the booze bus and that was my traffic stint. The booze bus had only just started up at that stage, so it was a bit of a new feel. Yeah, so that was my probation.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: How did you make the decision that I want to become a dog handler in the place?
[00:17:11] Speaker B: I think I was a little bit burnt in my childhood in that my family were heavily involved with the canine association. I was born into the paws of a Labrador. We had at least two Labradors always I had. Sasha and Glenn were my companions throughout my childhood. But I had to look after Sasha before school, after school. And so my father, he bred them and he retrieving Trial and did some, some, some showing as well. Sasha was a high ranking dog within WA and Australia. And so by the time I getting out of high school, joined the army, all of a sudden the dog thing sort of went, went, oh, thank goodness. I don't have to be around Labradors anymore and I don't have to pick up their dues.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:55] Speaker B: And I don't have to feed them and I don't have to, you know, cut my social life short because I've got this dog. So fast forward into the police. During my probation period and during going through the academy, I had a good friend called Steve and he goes, oh, I want to join canine. That's my ambition. And I was like, yeah, mate, whatever floats your boat. I did 17 years of that. I'm over it. And he never went there straight away, but him and I, we actually joined TRG together. And then he kept on doing some other stuff. I went into general duties and then we stayed in touch. And then all of a sudden he, he made sergeant, he joined K9. And I was like, it just rang a bell. I was like, oh, I think I've always remembered he wanted to go there and he did it. You know, that was his ambition. I thought now we're probably, you know, 12, 15 years down the track now as far as my career goes. And I'm like, you know what? Run around with dolls. It doesn't sound like a bad idea anymore because I never really had any other pets myself again because I was still busy gallivanting around the world and trying to be a good runner and I wouldn't have been able to be a good owner, pet owner. And that's actually a pretty good idea. So then I tried out a couple of times and it was very competitive, very competitive.
I'm not a great promoter of verbalizing what I, what I've achieved. I guess so. Failed a couple of times in the Interview and Britain's Thing. And if I can just get across the line and get into the selection course, I know I can show with my running and my ability to be able to throw my body around, I know I can do it. And knowing that I'm okay with affinity around dogs, I was born around dogs. I know I could do it. So then finally, the third time I was able to, we're talking about 100 people applying, maybe more, and three or four might get in at the end of the selection process. So, you know, you're talking about small percentages getting in. And so when I was failing to get in, I Was like, oh, you know, I can accept that, you know, So I wasn't like taking 80, and I was one of the 20 who failed. Finally, I was able to get on the selection. I think I was the last. There was four of us picked, and I think I was like, I was the last to get through. Apparently I only just scraped through as far as, you know, proving my trainability and all that sort of thing. But I thought, oh, you know what? I'm in it. And now I'm going to try and improve. I'm going to, you know, it's like running. You know, what you put in, you can get out. And finally I was able to do it. Now we're talking near on four years ago now. So once I was there, you get partnered up with a couple of different dogs and which one's good, and you might fall over, you don't have good affinity with the dog, or you're not trainable in that regards, or the dog might fall over. He's not biting well enough or he's not sniffing well enough. So, long story short, I got partnered up with my eventual partner, Chase, when he was about eight, nine months. He was already sort of probably, you know, 75% trained as far as his obedience and his ability to search. And then in the meantime, I've been there for six months or so. So they're training you to train the dog, essentially.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: Tell me about that day that you got paired up with Chase.
[00:21:08] Speaker B: Well, I'd already known Chase and Chase was with. Funny enough, I was there when Chase first arrived at the unit, but he was then handed to the trainers. And then he's getting taught all the basics that your puppy's training. You know, the to and from, his little basic commands. You know, anytime he does a thing, he gets rewarded. Lots of walks, lots of socialization. And I watched him in the background being able to see that, you know, adorable Labrador pup right up to six months is you just. All you want to do is pat him. You know, you just want to hang on to all that extra skin that you know he's going to grow into one day. And that's one of the great things about being a canine is you just see all these puppies and it's a work environment you just want to go to. And, you know, you're not supposed to overly be affectionate to them, but in that first sort of six months, you know, you can be. And so you take advantage of that.
[00:22:00] Speaker A: I wouldn't be able to help myself, mate.
[00:22:02] Speaker B: Whether you've got a Floppy eared shepherd or, you know, exuberant Mallee or, you know, an uncoordinated Labrador. They're all fun, you know, let me take him for a walk. I'll take him for a walk. So I saw Chase being brought up by the other the trainers and then a couple of the handlers, because we've got two separate parts in K9. There's the trainers and the handlers. So one of the more experienced handlers had Chase and he was being earmarked to have him as a dog before the course. So when, at 12 months, that's when they are ready to go on the course. So they've got basic obedience, basic ability to search and, and they're physically able to do all that. And so Ben, whose name was, was going to be partnered up with Chase, but he had aspirations to be a GP handler. And so what's a GP handler? So general purpose. Oh, general purpose tracking and biting. We had a transition period where we had DPs, which were dual purpose. So these dogs were able to track, bite or, you know, take down an offender and search for drugs and be, you know, sniffer dogs. So that's a whole sort of third class that we had. So basically there's, there's GP and, And narc. So the narc, that's what Chase is.
[00:23:12] Speaker A: Chase is in narc, so narcotics.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: And so Ben had aspirations for gp. I had another. I had a GP dog also called Vader, but he was. He was found not to be suitable. He. He loved to chase down, but he didn't want to bite. Fantastic tracker. And I thought, oh, that's good. You know, that was one part that I didn't have to focus on. But he just wasn't. I was probably seen not to be able to, given the best training that I was, I was probably seeing my shortfalls. And so they said, you know what? We're going to give you Chase. Chase is a. Is a. It was funny because I had a choice of two dogs. One they thought was going to be too boisterous for me. And Chase, he's a nice boy and it's like, all right, we're going to give you the nice boy. And in retrospect, two years later, the other dog, Wes, he ended up being the nice boy and Chases the exuberant, boisterous, over independent dog that I had to try and rein in, but not run in too much or you want that enthusiasm, but you know, when you're sniffing all the wrong things, but you're like, no, no, you got to come over here and sniff this mate. And I blame myself a little bit for that because obviously my wife and I would like to run. We're told, take your dog for a run. I was like, all right, I'll take my dog for a run. He's going to learn how to run for 10Ks, 15Ks if need be.
[00:24:27] Speaker A: 42Ks?
[00:24:28] Speaker B: No, maybe not 42. We want to be. Want him to be able to sniff at the end of the day, but, you know, we don't. Too exhausted. Yeah. He definitely was one of the fitter dogs at the unit, so, you know, you might be able to see that now. He's got those developed chest muscles and he's really lean and he loves to run and use his physicality. It worked out really well for me because he was able to be really fit for the job. You could do three, four houses, no problems. And he was able to jump up on things with confidence. Once a dog puts on a bit of weight and he gets a bit slippery and he hasn't got this strength to jump up on a table, jump up on a breakfast bench, you lose that confidence in your dog. So Chase, I had to save him from himself. Sometimes he's like, no, no, you can't jump on that stove, mate.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:25:18] Speaker B: It was a bit like that.
[00:25:19] Speaker A: He's definitely a fit looking boy. So would Chase come home with you at night? Did he then become like a pet at home apart from you taking out and training and keeping him fit for the role? Was he then switched roles into being, hey, this is our boy, this is our home dog? Or it stayed the same regardless?
[00:25:37] Speaker B: No. So you, you got to define that line and know where that line is. And it was hammered into us and I was accused a few times at the unit to be too soft and not defining that line. But I know how other handlers did it and I know how I was doing it and I was doing it better. I got a bit of a reputation. I was a bit too soft. There's just small examples where I might not have been as firm on the dog as I need to be or whatever the case may be. But I knew he was still performing and then at home, you know, he was. They encouraged you. We could have a kennel and they encourage you to use the kennel, isolate him, make sure that he has his downtime so he's not looking to you to be entertained or, you know, when's the next job? When's the next job, dad? You know, you're at home now, mate, just chill out. And so basically, you just want to reduce this, the. The outside stimulation. You know, there's no garden for you. There's no ball play. There's no. None of this. It's just like, chill out. So then, you know, you let him out in the backyard and wander around, have a sniff. But then, you know, if I was in the backyard, it might even be in the kennel. If I'm not in the backyard, might just let him out of the kennel, and you can just wander around, lay on the. In the sun on the. On the thing. But there was a different isolation from the family and the family pet. The two of them would do things together in the backyard or would go for a walk together. There wasn't that play pet mode that you want in a working dog. There's plenty of time so that when you retire, unfortunately, Chase got that a bit earlier. In the meantime, if you want to maintain the dog's drive, and that's. That's the key to dog training and working dogs is their drive and enthusiasm to do the work. And you want to maintain that because all of a sudden, if you start treating your dog, working dog, as a pet, dogs are like water. They just find the path of least resistance and they go, you know what? Laying on the couch and getting belly rubs is a lot better than running around in some bad guy's house, which has got crap everywhere. You know, everybody's yelling at me, that sucks. I just want to lay on the couch. So you don't give them the opportunity to lay on the couch. You just say, you're a working dog now, my buddy. And they don't know any better. So their enthusiasm for it is. So. It gives you such pride to watch them work. So that's the separation between pet and working dog.
[00:27:58] Speaker A: How'd you meet Tina, your wife?
[00:28:00] Speaker B: My wife. So we knew each other from. For a long time, and Tina was married at that time, and so she won races and I won races. I think we won bridges maybe once or twice together. And Perth marathon one of the times. They were both state champions, and so. But she lived down south in Dunsborough Way. I'd see Tina and then she'd leave, and that was all I really knew of Tina. And then we went away together to the Perths. We won Perth, and then we won a trip to Kobe, and. And that's the first time I actually got to talk to Tina for more than three minutes.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: Kobe, Japan. Yeah.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: Yes, that's it. Just south of Osaka. What a magnificent marathon that is. That the Japanese know how to put on a marathon. And so we were just treated like because we're representing WA there and we have actually a sister city and a sister state association with Kobe and Hale Hiogo. And so we, we met the premier, the equivalent of the premier over there and we were wined and dined and, and so it was a really good experience. And so from there Tina had moved back to Perth and so all of a sudden we could train together and then I'd see her once a week sort of thing at a training and then she became single and maybe a year later I was like, oh, you know what, we should maybe take this a bit further. You know, we've got the same beliefs. And so with the conversations, you know, I'd say something and she'd agree with you or we'd finish each other's sentences and it's like, oh, this one's got a lot in common with me. We're children of the 70s and the upbringing that we experienced and all that sort of thing. So we laugh at that. And yeah, so it just naturally blossomed from there and then I think we'll see, well, maybe three to four years we're seeing each other, we're in Paris and we're at the Lovelock Bridge in Paris and I had some pre made box made and so one, the girls were with us, Tina's daughters on their stepdad. And so they were sort of at me going, oh, you know, you should get one for Tina, you should get one for Mum and all this. Oh, well, maybe you should give her this one. And on the back I had. Will you marry me?
[00:30:06] Speaker A: Oh, wow, Harris.
[00:30:08] Speaker B: Yes. Wow. Yeah. So I got, I think I got a few kudos.
[00:30:11] Speaker A: That's a good move.
[00:30:12] Speaker B: Right, so in retro like we talk about it louder and team was like, it was about time you asked me. I was starting to get worried. I thought I had to wait for the right moment. So I thought this was it. So she did good. But so, yeah, the girls gave Tina a lot and yeah, the rest is history.
[00:30:31] Speaker A: That's a master stroke. I'm just thinking Paris proposing, that's.
[00:30:36] Speaker B: That's poetry, girls. Because that was obviously Tina was, you know, she was the lioness with her with her daughters and they had them involved. Was a cherry on top for me.
[00:30:45] Speaker A: With the girls, with Tina, with Chase coming home at night, was that a hard boundary to put in place going, hey, he's not a pet. Tell me about that, mate.
[00:30:54] Speaker B: Well, they, I mentioned Vader earlier and so that was easy. He was a 45 kilo shepherd, black Shepherd. Looked like one of those wolves that you come across in hounds of the D'Urberville types thing. And so don't go out the back girls when he's out of the kennel. Okay. And that was that. When I was there, you know, he was good to pat, all that sort of thing, but they didn't really want to go out there as far as, you know, his scariness. And so then when Chase arrived, it was. There was a bit of a crossover where, you know, the girls can go out there, they can pat him. You know, by this stage, I'm more experienced with the canine unit. I knew the boundaries and I knew what Chase was going to have to be trained in. I knew that they could go out there knowing what Chase was going to become a sniffer dog. And because he was going to sniff people and he had to know people and people touching him and knowing he could approach people without being hurt or needing knowing that he didn't have to defend me. His job was to sniff these people. So I thought, he's going to have to meet people and this family is going to be around him for the next 10, 12 plus years. He became a bit of a therapy dog for us. You know, the girls would come home and a grumpy teenager or life's been hard at school or whatever, and it's like, go out and pet Chase, you know, go touch his ears and you see the change in them. And so all of a sudden, he became our therapy dog. So he's still working, not pet.
[00:32:17] Speaker A: That was his. What do they call it, a side hustle?
[00:32:19] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a dead roll. It was good for Tina and I to try and get the angsty teenager cut down a couple of decibels, so. And then Chase spent less time in the kennel, more time just on the back pergola and in the sun sort of thing. So he just chilled out. And so when the girls would go out there, he would get excitable. And that's what I didn't want. That was the. That was the main key. And they learned the boundaries there. You know, he could pat them, you know, sit down with him and just chill him out. And that was all good for me.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: So, Todd, what were the earlier signs of your condition before you'd even been, I guess, properly diagnosed with motor neuron disease?
[00:33:18] Speaker B: Yeah. So going back a step with my running, after doing so many marathons, I'd thought to myself, oh, you know what? While I'm still relatively young, I can you know, I was sort of mid-40s at that stage and I was like, I've been doing this running gear for 25 years. I think I might do start doing cycling and still run, not have that dedication to go, I want to be state champion, I want to doing some other, other sports essentially. So I thought, oh, I might take up that triathlon again. But part of that I obviously got to become a better cyclist, which I used to cycle to and from work. That was it only because work's hopeless for parking. So I said, I'll cycle to work. So then I started building up the bike riding with a few group runs and group rides and I did cyclocross, which I really enjoy. Short, sharp, sort of running around in the mud sort of thing that was fun to do. I said I need to build up on my swim as well. So I started focusing on swimming and did the basso jetty swim and I thought I could swim 4Ks, that's a triathlon. I can run a marathon. I knew that. So all I did was improve the cycling gear. So really took cycling to another level. Got myself a really good high end bike, started riding with these high end people and just, just holding on. And then all of a sudden, you know, it was like running. You put what you put in and I was mid pack and then all of a sudden I was in the top three. And then all of a sudden I'm leading the pack up the up the hill or whatever. I was like, hey, this is good, I like this, this is a new challenge. And then because I was taking it to another level, I started getting specific bikes and so I started doing gravel riding. That's another sort of story. But then the cyclocross season was going to start. Just by coincidence, it's starting today. So this time last year in January, I started focusing on the cyclocross season. I went out and was doing a bit of riding, riding the sand. And you do U turns in the sand and you use power to get yourself out of that, those situations and you're riding on a relatively skinny tyre and I stood up in the pedal and all of a sudden my right foot just collapsed. And I thought that was weird. You know, my body reacts when I say so. And this foot wasn't reacting the way it wanted to and so it kind of wanted to. There was resistance but not the ability to be able to hold my body weight. And it was a real sort of shock before then, sort of in that. So that's January. So in sort of October November time, I was still running with Tina and we love to get out and run. It would take me, I'd have muscle soreness in my right leg or my calf and it was just working harder at what I've worked out. And then also because I was wanting to do better in cycling, I started doing these wing trainer sessions, it's called Watt Bike. And I'd go to this gym, Trenches Gym, and we'd get on this Watt bikes and they're very technical, they've got all these sensors on them. And I never really went for the whole, you know, I was raised in the world of CASIO, so all GPS's and all that I never really understood, but they could actually sense how much pressure you're putting on each pedal. So my left pedal would go and it would push it, say 50%. My right pedal would go and it would be 46%. And I was like, that's weird. So then all of a sudden I had to like focus on pushing harder. And that was sort of in that sort of November time. And so I was expecting that I'd had this issue with my right calf essentially. And then all of a sudden when my right calf was not holding my hand, body weight, I thought, oh, this is, this is not right at all. So in January, February, with the cycling crew, I knew a few high end doctors who were like, oh, you know, got to get that looked at and I know, I know somebody you go see and then all of a sudden, you know, you have this hope that it's just, just a muscle weakness caused by impingement of the, of the nerve or something to, oh, you know, it could be Lyme disease or, you know, there was this, the high end, most probable things started being reduced and all of a sudden it was like, well, there is a chance it could be motor neuron. And so all of a sudden you're doing these other tests. And so in about April, I found out on Easter weekend that yeah, we're pretty sure it's motor neuron. And so then I had to do a few other tests and I started seeing a neurologist and he goes, oh, we don't go in feet first here. We, we just wade into it, we go through a few other tests, we'll see how it progresses. And it appears I've got quite an aggressive one where every two to three weeks I can notice a difference in my ability. All of a sudden a weak foot became a weak leg, using my whole body to move my right leg. And all of a sudden it started in my left leg. And then Christmas Eve, funnily enough, we got the official diagnosis in paper. So in 11 month period, essentially, I mean, you could call it 13 months, but 11 month period, I went from preparing for a new season of cyclocross to wondering where, when my ability to.
[00:38:09] Speaker A: Even walk was going to finish my understanding. There's a few different classes of mnd. And is it yours called rapid progression?
[00:38:18] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. I mean, initially, when they say if you've got MND, you probably got wonderful five years, that's the average. Some people go 10 years. Hawkins, he went for 20. So you can vary in that. So I don't think I've got the very aggressive. Otherwise I'd probably be dead now. But I think, you know, I've probably got that two years. I think that'll probably be me.
[00:38:39] Speaker A: Oh, God, mate.
What was the thoughts and feelings with you and also your wife and daughters when that was handed down?
[00:38:48] Speaker B: How was it? It was hard dying for me. You know, Since I was 17, I've been around guns and, you know, I've watched people die in training accidents in the army. I didn't go overseas with war or anything, but, you know, with the police, I've seen death a lot. So I come to terms with my death. Well before this, of course, you see your daughters, you try and buffet them as best you can, but when you're crawling up the stairs and struggling to, you know, you collapse. And when you walk, you can't hide that from them. So they've been very strong.
I kept working as long as I could, but when I found out in April, you know, I was by myself on a job down south. I had to ring Tina. It was so tough, so tough to talk to her on the phone and not be there. You're supposed to be the husband. You have to support your wife. You know, she still had hope. Deep down. I was quietly confident that I was, that I had it. You know, we probably had a sort of a, a couple of percent hope, you know, nerve damage or something. Because I was continuing to work. We were able to buffet the, the impact of the, of the news. And so life continued on as normal with Todd. Had a limp. It wasn't the first time I'd had a limp in my life. You know, I had the Achilles injury and stuff like this, or you roll your ankle or whatever. Broke her leg. So it wasn't that. Then all of a sudden, when there's walking canes involved or a walking frame, you're now a wheelchair. You can't Hide that. You know, you've got to face it head on. So I think the desensitization of me to work and then the progression of, okay, I'm retiring now or finishing up work because I just can't walk anymore. It wasn't such a big shock. You know, they thought maybe if I had stopped working and, you know, hey, Todd, why are you home? And you know why you're sort of struggling to get up and might have been a bit more brutal in their face, but, yeah, now we're just facing it every day now. And I'm at home, you know, sort of full time, just trying to get through day, day by day.
[00:40:54] Speaker A: And Chase retired with you?
[00:40:56] Speaker B: Yeah. So I don't know how to put this selfishly. You give your wife such bad news and you watch her reaction, you know, speaks how she feels and breaks your heart and.
And I just know, obviously the girls became quite attached to Chase. You know, he'd been in our lives for three years at this stage, three and a half years. And he's such a big buffeted guy and love. And he's got a coat that's like an oil slick, you know, he's just so beautiful. And for me to sort of go, oh, I'm gonna. I. You have to understand how the police K9 works. He's. He's. He's their property. He's worth tens of thousands of dollars for you to go, oh, I'm just going to retire and I'm going to take the dog with me. It's not your option.
[00:41:46] Speaker A: Tell me about how that happened.
[00:41:48] Speaker B: Yes, I was a little bit dodgy. Good in that I got became pro. I've been said first time in 30 years I wanted to be selfish in regards to work. You realize you're a public servant and you're there for the public and you take abuse and you put your, you know, your physicality on the line. But I'd seen how dogs had been used as.
There's this dichotomy of, you know, got to make sure that your dog's your partner and you've got to create a bond with him, but don't become emotionally bonded. And all of a sudden you have this silly situation where you become naturally bonded to a dog. We can, if you listen to this podcast, you understand dogs mean to. To humans. And so to have. He's your partner. I'm not. I don't have another human partner in the car with me. He's in the car. I'm in the car, and we're going to jobs together. It's him and I as a team. He does 80% of the work. I just hang on to the dumb end of the lead. And you become so, so connected to him and so proud of him.
For me to come home suddenly and go, I've got a disease, I'm sorry, I'm going to die. And by the way, I've left Chase at the kennel for another handler to take over. I just couldn't face it. I couldn't do that to my family. So I continued to work because it was sort of 50, 50 in my mind that the powers that be would actually retire the dog to me. And I thought, if I can work till he's half his working age, because the working age of the dog is about six, seven years. And so I thought, oh, if I can get him to the halfway mark, not knowing if I had rapid progression at this stage. And so I thought, if I can get to say, you know, four, maybe five years working with him, they will retire him to me. They sort of have to, because it's not worth them taking him off me, hand him to another handler and then retraining, rebonding, and then he has another year out in the road and then he has to get retired anyway. So I thought, if I can get to that stage. But because then you're handling a big buffeted dog and I've got weak legs and I'm trying to control him. And it was getting sort of 50, 50 where I was still able to do it because I was able to last for about six months, still working to try and prove to him that we'll try to get to that four year mark. But it got to the point where I couldn't. And on the sideshow I got a. Not many people new at this stage that I knew from April to around October, that's when I declared it to work. So I had to keep it to myself. And I bumped into a guy who's coincidentally high up in, in police and he's also in the army with me. He goes, oh, you gotta. I said, because I hadn't been at the army for a little while because I couldn't carry things, you know, I was wobbly on the leg and I basically. He goes, I haven't been at the arm before. I said, look, this is what's happened to me. He goes like that shit, you know, you got to talk to the commissioner about it. He wants to know. I said, oh, you know, I don't want to. It's not his issue. And I was just, I had in my mind that I was just going to retire or resign, should I say hopefully use my super to support my family. And he goes, no, no, you've got to go see him. So this is like 7:30 in the morning. By midday I'm in the office with him. I got chased by my side with the commissioner. With the commissioner. So this is the top guy. Yeah, this was the first time I'd actually. Well, no, actually, in fact, I met him as an inspector many years ago. But then, you know, this is the big guy. This is like meeting the premier and I'm in there with Chase and I'm just like, I'm sorry boss, I'm going to have to leave the job. I can't work anymore. You know, I've got this dog. And he goes, what can you do for you? You know, he's like talking to dad and I'm just saying a whole lot, you know, if the dog could be retired to me, that'd be great because I had such fear for six months. And when the big guy says, consider it done, it just, the relief. I walked in that office was such relief because there was just something I could leave behind for my family that I know they loved. And it was a really good guy. It was the first positive thing. I'm sorry.
[00:45:49] Speaker A: No, don't be sorry. Say Chase is coming home with you.
[00:45:52] Speaker B: Exactly. You know, it was the first positive thing I'd heard in six months. And so then he goes, what else can we do for you? I'm like, you've done it. He goes, we'll keep you on the books. I said, can you do that? I won't be able to work. I can't work.
I can't drive anymore. I won't be able to walk anymore. Every police officer, see, is obviously an upstanding, physical guy. And I said, I'm not interested working in the office. I've been running around with a dog and all of a sudden I'm going to be locked in office. He goes, no, no, you just go on permanency leave. I don't know how you can do that. And he goes, I'm the commissioner, you're my employee. Went, okay, if you can do it. And so that just means I don't have to worry about my super. I can keep a roof over the head with mortgage and I've got the dog. And he goes, what else can we do? There's no other thing I can think of.
He goes, oh, you know, we've got to help you. Out with your family. And so we're still self sufficient, you know, obviously there's ndis and things like that. So I don't want to burden the police anymore. I've come out of this with two extra things that I didn't think I was going to have when I woke up this morning and here we are six hours later. So this is a good day.
I hadn't told K9 at this stage they could see that I was struggling. I had a splint on at that stage. And so he goes, look, tell them if they don't make the right decision in the morning, you tell me and they'll make the right decision by the afternoon.
Knowing I had that ace up my sleeve, I just went to work with, you know, just a little bit more brightness. And you know, I was still working about two weeks before I knew I was going to finish, finish work. I told work and I said, look, I want to keep chase. And the sergeant said, oh, I can't see why that won't happen. And so I had this six months of stress for no reason because I just said, of course it can happen. And so then obviously they, then it was funny because my immediate boss, he then told the next boss, the next boss, you know, there's a chain of command, gets up to the Commissioner and he goes, oh yeah, I already know that.
[00:47:44] Speaker A: Old news. That's old news.
[00:47:46] Speaker B: Yeah, old news. And so then of course that comes back down. And so one or two days later the sarge asked me to come back and go, I know we've given you a chance, but I hear you already knew that you were going to have it. So I said, oh look, I didn't want to burn any bridges, like at the same time I had to be selfish. I just knew that it was an opportunity. Trust me, there's no way I wanted to. You know, I was a soldier through and through, I used a chain of command, but it was the first time, it was an opportunity that came out. It was a conversation I had with a mate in a car park. And then within hours I was in the Commissioner's office. We chase, running around, doing dumb stuff. He chewed through his lead and then all of a sudden he's on the Commissioner's lap.
[00:48:26] Speaker A: Of course he was honest boss.
[00:48:28] Speaker B: He's a really obedient dog, you know, at the moment I just cannot yell at him. And he goes, it's all right, he's giving a noogie and oh my goodness, it's great. He was, if anybody hacks him, the Commissioner. No, I can't. I just, you know, he's just done everything right by me and I can't fault how this helped my family out emotionally.
[00:48:48] Speaker A: I'm so stoked how that happened. What an amazing story.
[00:48:51] Speaker B: It's a great story.
[00:48:52] Speaker A: And Chase, not that long ago, Chase won a. A medal, like a service medal as well.
[00:48:57] Speaker B: Yeah. So that was all part of why I wanted him to get a, you know, work as long as possible because he, he was a fantastic worker. His drive, you know, we made him physically fit, you know, he passed his. Because we have tests either once or twice a year, you know, to re certify that he's good to go. Because you've got to remember these dogs are used for court evidence that, you know, the K9 officer, he pointed out where the dog indicated. The detective finds whatever he finds and then he takes that to court if the guy puts on killing. And so they asked, oh, detective, why did you search that? Well, the canine dog indicated there, that's. And because he's a certified dog, he's certified under the law that he can be used to assist police in finding illegal drugs and cash. You know, he always passed his courses and his tests and all that sort of thing. I'm so proud of him. And to take him away from that thing that he loved so much enthusiasm. And Chase was a bit of a unique dog in that he, he worked for food and of course, all labs do, but we try to make them work for a ball, ball play. And you know, you'll see on the news, you know, they'll have a rolled up bit of towel or ball with a rope on it and you play tug of war with him. Chase loves that. As long as there's not a roof over his head. But of course you're searching houses and for whatever reason, he's like, this is not the ball play area. I want food. And because they trained him when he was initially. You trained a dog before the course on meth, methamphetamine. And so he sniffed the methamphetamine. You feed him. And they got this new machine in where or they didn't. It's not a machine, but it was like a tube. And he didn't know where the food was coming from. So the stiffened method put the little bit of kibble down, he sniffed it, bit of kibble would come. He's like, this is fantastic. And he clicked so quickly into it, it was like, sniff food, sniff food. And all he did, all he connected was then cannabis, you know, methamphetamine amphetamines, cocaine, heroin, this is all equal to food. This is magnificent. And I get fed. So, you know, you're 6 months, 12 months, 2 years old. I sniff that drug. I want food now. When I say drug, you sniff that odor. I want that food now. I don't want ball. I want food. When we're out in the park, we play with the ball. I'm great with that, dad, but I want food now. And so the trainers were so panicky about him. And this is where that softness comes into play. You got to teach him ball play. I said, you can teach him ball play. I've tried everything. My car looked like a circus. I had like six different balls and all these different colored items, you know, kongs and all this sort of thing to try and encourage him to play ball inside a house. And you just wouldn't do it. And they just went. They just. After six months, they just put up their head, okay, as long as you can manage it, you know, because we don't want to feed him to us. I said, I gave him one or two bits of kibble. He could find a million dollars. I would feed him two bits of kibble, he would be happy, and then go and search again. And they go, well, that's pretty good.
And that's how we. And that's how we work. And so, because he worked so well and I wanted to get him across the line, they created this new service medal. And so I just wanted him. Because he was so good, I just wanted him to. To earn it. You know, coming from military background, I know medals are not awarded, they're earned. And I wanted him to earn it.
When they said he was going to get them, you know, I was like, oh, does he deserve it? You know, my body's failed as part half the team. I've let him down. And I said, we see it as a medically discharged type thing, and he's going to receive the medal. So my understanding, well, he's one of the first to receive. There was about four, three or four that were issued out, and he was able to receive it. So he looked proud as punch. I didn't attend.
I couldn't face it. As you can see, my manhood legs had on my eyes too much. So I sent my wife, and she received it on my behalf.
I hope that she got a feeling for what it represented and being around the other police officers and the other dogs and things. So she got a taste of what I experienced over the last three years. So I was really happy with that, you can imagine the last two weeks. You know, the first week I was still like, oh, yeah, I'm here for another week. I'm here for another week. And as the. The days whittled down, it just became so poignant that this is my last day in uniform. You know, I've been. I've been in uniform since I was 17, and all of a sudden I'm not gonna be, you know, I'm losing some of my identity. And we sat down on this couch here, and I brought Chase in and he was like, this is a couch. This is unbelievable. Just laid down with me and I'm in uniform looking down. Just sort of. It was sort of like a final pinnacle moment. It was like no more uniform, but this is your life now, Chase sort of. We're on the couch together and yeah, was bittersweet. You know, it was this moment of one thing finishing and knowing why it was finishing because of my health. And then having Chase by my side with his head on my lap. It was just great.
[00:54:33] Speaker A: Tina Ingraham, Todd's wife and greater supporter and now a tireless advocate, has taken this fight far beyond her own doorstep.
What started as a modest goal to raise $1,000 for the motor Neuron Disease association of Western Australia has become something extraordinary. Today, Tina's raised over 50, $50,000 and she's still going.
She said, people ask me what they can do. The truth is, MND doesn't have a cure. It doesn't have effective treatment. But what we can do is show up for those living with it. MND association of Western Australia has wrapped us in warmth, care, and understanding. Every dollar raised goes directly to helping other Western Australians, families just like theirs. That's what keeps me going.
And if you're a dog lover, if you know that deep, wordless bond we share with those we walk beside, then you already understand something about loyalty and love.
Todd and Chase have that bond, and Tina, her fight is fuelled by it, too.
If Todd's story has moved you, scroll down in your podcast app. You'll find a direct link to Tina's fundraising page. Or if you prefer, reach out to me
[email protected] and I'll send the link your way.
While MND takes so much, it can't take away love, and it can't take away our ability to stand beside one another.
[00:56:11] Speaker B: You.
[00:56:11] Speaker A: My name is John Littlefair, and thank you for listening to Todd Ingraham's journey here on Never Just a.
