We went on our first off leash hike today, with my son, his girlfriend, and her golden retriever, who is Toby's best buddy. The dogs had a great time. Then we came to a pond. Toby has never been near a body of water before. The golden was puddling at the edge, so Toby went down too. Then, before I knew it, he ran in and just kept going! He was swimming straight across - and this was not a little pond. I must say, my heart jumped into my throat. I had good quality treats in my pocket, and was…
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Added by Sandy on April 10, 2010 at 9:32am —
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About a week ago Toby got up uncharacteristically early - 6:15 a.m. He woke me whining, which he never does. He sleeps in a crate in our room. I let him out and he raced outside. He did pee, but more than that just seemed to want to tear around the yard. He was hyper! Usually Toby is quite sedate in the mornings, so this was unusual for him. Flash forward ahead to last night. I was woken at 2 a.m. by scuffling around, noises etc. Again I took him out - figured he'd forgotten to pee before…
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Added by Sandy on March 31, 2010 at 6:00am —
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For some reason, today, Toby has lost all his manners. He is acting like a stupid, untrained little puppy. He is almost 17 months old, and today, he has been running at me, jumping, barking, refusing to behave.....just awful. He hasn't acted like this for months, literally. I've had to crate him three times for misbehaviour, and that is very unusual. He was groomed yesterday....could that be it? I just cannot figure out this huge change in behaviour and attitude. I was almost in tears tonight.…
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Added by Sandy on January 7, 2010 at 7:57pm —
11 Comments
Today we had our first really good overnight frost. Oh boy - Toby is pumped! He was racing around the yard at high speeds (zooming!) over, and over, and over. He was rolling and rolling on the frosty grass. He has already been on a walk and played ball. There's nothing quite like seeing a happy dog zooming around the yard to put a smile on your face first thing in the morning! So....lots more frost, but no snow. Sound like a good winter plan? :) Unfortunately, living where I do, snow will be…
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Added by Sandy on November 29, 2009 at 6:37am —
4 Comments
Toby is being a royal, pain in the bottom, jerk today, and has been for a couple of weeks. Tonight he was darting around, jumping, barking (which he never does), and just being a nuisance, and a rotten dog. Maybe it's because the weather is changing, time changed....I don't know. but whatever it is should stop, promptly. Currently he is having a time out in his crate, which hasn't happened for quite some time. He's also coming off a week where he has some stomach issues, and is just getting…
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Added by Sandy on November 5, 2009 at 5:52pm —
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Our church holds a "Turkey Bowl" on Thanksgiving Monday, which is today. Basically people come, make up teams and play football. Last year I went and watched with Toby, who was 9 weeks at the time. This year I went and took him, and it was a disaster. Our walk over (we live very close), was brutal. Pull, pull, pull. So many corrections, sits, etc., on the way there. And then.....hyper excited because of people and other dogs. He just would not settle down! Pulling, getting up out of a sit,…
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Added by Sandy on October 12, 2009 at 9:20am —
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So I ventured back to the dog park yesterday - mid-afternoon, with my son there as support, and we actually had a pretty good time. Toby met a lovely collie, and the two of them ran very well together. Lots of fun play. Of course, we haven't had much rain lately, so Toby picked up a lot of dry dirt, and needed a bath when we got home. No biggie - he loves to have a bath!
Anyway - there was a four month old pup there, whose owner felt the appropriate use of a dog park was to sit on a…
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Added by Sandy on September 18, 2009 at 4:51am —
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Toby was one in August. He is now over 65 pounds. We do our best to keep him active and exercised, and yesterday he was out and about with us, had two 1/2 walks, and basically had a pretty good day, as dog's days go. But last night, as seems to be the norm lately, he got all crazy, overactive, would not settle down, etc. It's almost like an overtired toddler - the longer it goes on the worse he gets, and even though he's just playing, it gets a little rough - not biting, of course, but knocking…
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Added by Sandy on September 8, 2009 at 4:43am —
10 Comments
Toby was one this month. He has been house trained for quite some time. And yet - occasionally he pees on the rec room carpet. Stupid dog. Why? I have no idea. There is no rhyme or reason - no pattern - no nothing. It's just once in a while. He may have been outside recently even. It is just so darn frustrating. I'm almost at the point where he is going to be banned. That would be a shame, as we are currently re-doing the basement, and will do most of our t.v. watching down there. But the re-do…
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Added by Sandy on August 20, 2009 at 7:10pm —
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Toby has been ill, and on medication, and is feeling better. Also, he is off the drugs as of today. On top of that he was groomed today. One would think he'd be tired, but no, he's SO busy tonight. Driving me nuts anyway...pawing at me, jumping around, refusing to settle down,etc. Thank goodness it's almost bedtime! He is currently having a 5 minute time out in his crate - that better work.
Added by Sandy on August 6, 2009 at 7:03pm —
5 Comments
Most days I feel like Toby does "all right", but is not yet a beautifully trained dog. In the last week I've been given some compliments, which makes me feel like I am, just maybe, being too hard on myself.
First off - we have a girl coming to stay for half a day with Toby while we are at our son's wedding. She and her Mom came to meet Toby, and I felt he was not behaving well. He got a 2 minute time out in his crate, and I just felt overall they wouldn't have gotten a good…
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Added by Sandy on July 23, 2009 at 5:31am —
2 Comments
We had our Grade One Graduation on Friday night. It was a regular class, except they were marking every exercise that we did. Toby did quite well. He only got one "keep practising" and that was in the Look at Me part - he's too nosy, and didn't maintain eye contact. :)
The things we got marked on were - Meet and Greet (stay seated and calm as someone walks up to say hello, and then approach…
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Added by Sandy on May 17, 2009 at 11:09am —
10 Comments
We looked out the window the other day and this is what we saw. Later in the day as, we watched, we saw Toby do it again. He just jumped up onto the table from the deck. If we can pass our obedience classes, perhaps agility training is next? :)
Added by Sandy on May 4, 2009 at 7:47am —
6 Comments
So we had Obedience class on Friday night. Class has been going very, very well.. In fact, the last two weeks, I would say Toby has been almost the star of the class. And then came Friday night. Our class was fuller than usual. We had three dogs doing a make up class, and were with us. It is a very big area, but still, that made 14 dogs and handlers, four floor instructions, a lead instructor, and a few spectators sitting across the end. With tasty treats in hand, I was prepared to excel once…
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Added by Sandy on May 3, 2009 at 11:23am —
4 Comments
We had Toby groomed on Friday. We found a groomer called "Groomer on the Go" who comes in a large vehicle right to the driveway, and does the bath, cut, dry, everything, right there. She did a great job! Now - I will try to post some pictures of the end product.
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Added by Sandy on April 20, 2009 at 4:00pm —
7 Comments
Last night we had obedience class again. We had actually considered quitting the class, because we found it to be less helpful than it could be due to criticism and lack of motivation from the instructors. We did not quit, and went off to class last night. Toby was tired - he was groomed for the first time yesterday, and we took him early and let him run. If I may say so myself, Toby totally ROCKED OUT that class last night. I have never seen behave as well. My husband was watching from the…
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Added by Sandy on April 18, 2009 at 3:00pm —
5 Comments
I just typed this out once, and it didn't save. So...here we go again.
At the risk of jinxing things, the last couple of days walking Toby has been a joy. He has been doing "with me", "let's go", "get in", sitting at street corners with little encouragement, and even "look at me". Also, when we encountered someone who wanted to pet him yesterday, he sat patiently and accepted the attention. I have had comments by a couple of different people stating what a well behaved dog I have. I…
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Added by Sandy on April 16, 2009 at 10:07am —
4 Comments
We got brave and found a lovely dog park about 30 minutes from our house. They have a web site, and we viewed pictures ahead of time. Off we went. Toby loves a good ride in the car, so that part was great. We got to the dog park, which was as nice in person as it was in pictures. Double gated, really big, etc. We went in and took off Toby's leash. He looked at us, and we told him to "Go Play!" He hesitantly stepped away, and then a little Scottie dog came over to make friends. From then on it…
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Added by Sandy on April 11, 2009 at 10:30am —
8 Comments
Toby is doing well with training - class three of Grade One obedience is under our belts. Well....he's doing well at home. At class, he is not demonstrating all the brain power that he has. He is pulling, being goofy, going after other people's treats, etc. So I thought, to help with the pulling, I would get the Easy Walk Harness. Two instructors have recommended the Gentle Leader, but after a very brief demo session with Toby, it became clear that is was going to be a BIG struggle to use.…
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Added by Sandy on April 7, 2009 at 6:32am —
9 Comments
Once upon a time there was a dog named Toby who wouldn't play fetch. His Mommy bought him Kong tennis balls, with a lovely squeaker inside, and he didn't care. His Mommy bought plain tennis balls, and he didn't care. He enjoyed sticks, so his Mommy thought, "Aha! I will throw a stick for Toby. He will chase it, and we will play fetch!" But alas, Mommy threw the stick, and Toby watched it sail through the air and hit the ground, then jumped with muddy paws on his Mommy. Mommy threw leaves into…
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Added by Sandy on April 1, 2009 at 5:03pm —
5 Comments
