Toby 13-175 [1]

 Merry Christmas, Toby! Love, your pal Shiloh 13-176

Merry Christmas Toby!  Love Tori and Taylor

July 18, 2013

Toby is a 4 year old, absolutely gorgeous/handsome male, probably not purebred since his ears are so long, but close.  Toby comes to RAGOM from a shelter where he was surrendered because the owners had too many dogs.  We've had him in foster care for a few weeks without posting him because we were considering adopting him ourselves.  His temperament is perfect.  We have not seen an iota of aggression and I trust him implicitly around my granddaughter.  We decided, however, that Toby will get the attention he deserves if we instead adopt him out to some lucky home that will have more time to devote to him.  We have seven dogs at our house and he deserves more attention.

Toby is up-to-date on shots and is neutered.  Other than an ear infection which we are treating, he is very healthy and ready to be adopted.  We do have to take in a fecal to make sure it is negative since he came to us with whipworms, but he has been treated, so hopefully the next fecal will be clean.  He is ready to find his forever home.

Because of his previous living environment, Toby does have many of the characteristics of a puppy mill dog.  Loud noises will send him flying into the other room.  It takes him a while to feel comfortable enough to come up to you to be petted, but once he does feel comfortable, he is very happy to see you when you come home.  He is reliably housetrained and we have had no accidents at all since he arrived.  He also has not lifted his leg to mark on anything inside or outside (must have been neutered early).    Toby does have some storm anxiety.  He doesn't destroy the house, but will hide under the desk or climb up in bed with you.  We have let him get on the couch and the bed and he has learned that those are comfy spots. He doesn't quite get what a toy is for and won't chase a tennis ball, but is starting to pick up stuffed animals and run with them for a minute.  Toby is also nervous in the car.  He gets in and out fine, but pants and will benefit from lots of short rides so he learns that the car is not a scary thing.

Toby's perfect forever home will have another dog to help him feel comfortable.  Also, when he sees you petting another dog, he comes up to you because he doesn't want to miss out.  He will do best in a home with no children or children over ten.  I would totally trust him around young children if you have visiting grandchildren, nieces/nephews, etc., but kids making a lot of noise would scare him.  A quiet, gentle single child would be ok.  He does great with my 9 year old granddaughter.  I'm torn on whether he needs a fence or not.  I don't believe he would do well tied out, but on leash, he would be fine and after a lot of obedience training so he learns a recall, he could be outside with a person unfenced, but not yet.  He hasn't jumped our chain link fence, but he did jump the picket fence at the end of our property.  The funny thing was that he jumped right back in again.  We put up some chicken coop wire so he couldn't jump it a second time.  I do not think that he would do well being trained to an invisible fence as the correction to train him would likely cause him to be too scared to go outside again.

The most important criteria for an adoptive home is one that wants to help him become a self-confident dog and to accomplish that, he would benefit from obedience training at a public facility and lots of socialization.  His temperament is so wonderful that with sufficient training and acclimating to wheelchairs, etc., I think he could enjoy being a therapy dog.