We also made the decision at the end of last year that re-homing Toby would be the very best for him as we arenow travelling extensively between the UK and USA .

Toby hates kennels and is such a velcro viz it was unreasonable to ask him to spend 2 months at a time in kennels and then come home for 2 months then back to kennels etc.  In our opinion this is no life for such a beautiful boy.

To cut a very long and heartbreaking story short, we made the decision to re- home him and are forever grateful to Amanda at Hungarian Vizsla Society for all her help and support.  Without her help we would never have been able to do this.

In April 2011 Toby moved to his new home in Northern England and will hopefully be going beating and the couple who now own him are overjoyed with him.

We love him and miss him and hope he has the wonderful life he deserves.

Thank you Toby for being the best dog ever – we so miss you

He always sits before he eats and waits for you to say “Toby Take” before diving in.  At night he goes outside for a “wee” and then jumps into his sky-kennel and waits for his “markies” and then you never hear another peep out of him until 8am.

He still has to bring you his very scruffy “blankey” which he promptly swaps for a shoe everytime you see him.  He leans against you all the time and still wants to sit on you at every opportunity

He walks well on the lead (although he stills pulls but no as much).  He has a whistle and when you do 3 short blows he comes racing back for a treat – except when something much more interesting is going on!! then he totally ignores you.  If he sees another dog he races off to play and all the calling, shouting, whistle blowing gets you nowhere.  He will then just play with the oher dog until you drag him off.  He does not bark at them and in fact his barking is pretty much under control.  He barks when some-one comes to the door but not incessantly and apart from that is pretty good.  He has several tricks:

Sit

Down

Stay

Shake Hands

Wait – you can put food down and he will not touch it until you say Take

In your bed – races to his day bed

Dead Dog – rolls onto his back

Come – well that still need working on

He is a lovely boy !!

well ermm, its not turned out quite like that.  Toby is a joy to be with.  He has learnt alot (so have we) and I cannot imagine just how it has been and that two years have passed since we bought him home.  Toby is many things, some good some bad and some just bad parenting (by us).

This is how he now looks:

Toby loves the snow and tries to eat the ice

He is so handsome and loves to play.  Shall we start wit his faults so that we end on a high note ?  why not.

He barks at the front door and racing at it

He has to bring half is bed to greet you if he has not seen you for more than 5 minutes

He brings you everyones shoes

platic toys – NO – all destroyed in minutes

Recall – well only if no-one around and nothing better to do

Pulling on the lead – not bad but not perfect

Barks – lots

GOOD POINTS:

Rattles the keys in the back door to signal wants to go out

Sits whenever told

waits patiently until you say “take” for his food

Puts his head through the lead

Happy to be left alone for long periods of time

Does not jump up to work surfaces to get food

loves looking out of the window

Never goes upstairs

So in two years he is pretty good (as a family pet) but would be total rubbish as working dog – we love him.  He is so fully of energy, so powerful, so stubborn and we love him.

Today he is in my good books, so this is a nice post about Toby.  Will write the more truthful one when he has done something he should not have done…

We have been so busy – we were moving from uk to California – alas this did not happen for many reason ( i promise not to bore you with the details).  However we did go for 5 weeks in the summer – great for us but not for Toby/tobes/toblerone and lots of other names we call him.  More on this later.

Toby is such a handsome boy – i promise to post loads of lovely pictures of him soon.  His training is pretty much over and many many bad habits still prevail.  On the plus side many improvements have also been made. 

He has a very well established routine.  He wakes at about 7 and then waits/whines for us to come and play.  When I arrive downstairs he rushed back to his sky kennel and grabs his blanket and rushes to bring it to me.  This drive us mad and we then say “go fetch me a toy” and he darts about the kitchen desperatley looking for something to grab.  We spend most days putting the blanket back in the bed.  Regardless of all attempts to stop him doing this we have failed miserably.  We have to keep this scruffy blanket in his kennel otherwise he bring the entire contents of his bed out (this consits of a rather large old duvet   !! 

We then go for a 30 minute walk around the farm – he still pulls on the lead but nowhere near as much as he used to.  I sometimes use the mikki walk-rite harness which does a pretty good job.  He will never be a champion at walking to heel but it no longer rips my arm from its socket!!

He then settles on his bean bag in the kitchen for most of the day.  He is very happy to be left on his own and no longer chews everything in sight and the kitchen has now been repaired and redecorated at last!.  We originally bought the sky kennel ready for our move to the USA.  We used it regularly so that he would be used to it when we set off.  hoever, he loves it.  We no longer have to “shut him in” and can leave him for many hours – he tends to stay in it when we go out even though he can use his “other” bed in the kitchen.  I think he likes the cozy darkness of it.  He leaps in at night ready for his “markie” (no other sweetie will do) before settling down at night.

He loves his bean bag in the day and hates it if you try and move it and growls at us.  He has a nice long walk in the afternoon across the fields or along the road and the farm.  He loves this walk.  Sometime I use the bike (If I am pushed for time)  Either I am a rubbish cyclist or that dog can really move!!  He is so fast when at full speed and loves it.

During the evening he tends to come and watch TV for a few minutes then goes off back to the kitchen (he has worked out that british tv is rubbish 90% of the time).  He no longer jumps up all the time, but still puts his bottom on my lap at every opportunity.  He barks at the front door and goes crazy when we have visitors.  He does calm down after a few minutes thank heavens.

He also has a low growl (more of a grumble really) with some people.  I don”t think its because he does not like them but cannot work it out – anyone got any suggestions what that is all about.?

On another note (this is unpleasant so stop reading now)…  when he does his business in the morning and evening it is firm, but the mid-day one is always runny – is this just Toby or a Vizsla thing?

The worst bit of the last six months was our trip to california.  I had to put Toby into kennels for 4 weeks.  I hated it.  I visited them about 4 times beforehand (they must think i am crazy) and I emailed them every week we were awey.  I have to say that Toby looked fit and well and they loved him.  They are super kennels and i felt they looked after him as well as any kennel can – i however hated it and missed him. 

So will update more regulary, and fill in all the gaps i have missed from this post.  Some good and the odd very low point.

watch this space.

Toby at 18 months

We have had a strange few weeks with Toby – one one hand he has been brilliant – learnt to lie on his back when I say “dead dog” and had finally learnt not to run off with every dog friend he meets.  He is coming on in leaps and bounds

the bad bit is that he bit my daughter on the arm – not a deep bite but he was defending his toy and this is unacceptable.  It left a terrible bruise (did not puncture the skin) and she was very upset (so was I)

He also has a new Mikki Walk-Rite Training Harness and it works a treat

More details to follow when I get more time.

Our Toby is well and truly a teenager.  He has improved in so many ways – he no longer runs off with my shoes when we are about to go for a walk (I know he is struggling with himself and fighting the urge to grab them).  He will immediately SIT both indoors and outdoors when told.  He no longer attempts to get on the sofa but still finds it hard to “settle” with us in the family room.

He is growing up – walks on the lead pretty well (not perfect but acceptabel) but is still appalling at recall – will ALWAYS ignore you if  something better happening.  He gets over excited when visitors come, but I am working hard on that one

Will update more soon

It is amazing how much everything has changed and how quickly we have forgotten the lack of sleep, the biting,  the eating of all things unspeakable and so much more.  We have come to some form of understanding and have a pretty good routine.  A typical day for our toby is as follows:-

6:30 to 7:00am

whimper for attention.  He is then let outside where he completes the first of many toilet routines.  Nip back into bed for a short while.

7 to 8:30

WALKIES!  Toby is very excited at the prospect of a trip outside.  When we let him out of his overnight crate he MUST bring me something – he still tries to drag the entire bed out of the crate and I have to entice him with a toy.  His tail/botton  is wagging and wiggling  like crazy.  He tries to jump up but its more half hearted now as he is fully aware that he should not (always worth a try tho’).  He steals my slipper as I try to put on my walking gear and then tries to eat the lead followed by a final nibble on my coat.  Months ago it was totally impossible to get ready for a walk with Toby anywhere near me.  Now he grabs my slipper for old times sake (he drops it almost immediately).  He no longer tries to knock me over and no longer runs off with my walking shoes -so we are improving.  However, I think this is probably as good as it will get

9ish

Breakfast.  Toby eats with gusto and in no time its all gone and he is on the hunt for a snack.  He nibbles my feet when I am making toast for myself and watches me eat with the odd bark for attention.

9 until 11

He snoozes/plays/trawls for food in the kitchen.  Often one of us is in there too and he just sits on his bean bag good as gold.

He no longer goes mental when the door bell rings (well, actually thats not true – he does goes mad, but he o longer jumps all over people when I open the door and he no longer eats the post!).  RESULT!

He no longer breaks my arm when we go for a walk.  He still pulls but nothing like the early days and he will walk to heel (after a fashion).

He loves other dogs and people – his recall is highly selective.  If no-one around he is Mr. Perfect.  If another dog within 1 mile he will run off to play and no amount of enticing/shouting/going in other direction helps – we are still working on this one!!

He mouths me much less than he used to.  Still has to have something in is mouth.  I ask hm to fetch me a toy and this always works.  HE chases off to his box of toys and brings me something – this has saved several pairs of socks, several school shoes and other items.  However lots of pairs of slippers look the worse for wear thanks to our Toby

He no longer sits on the furniture.  Occassionally he jumps on the sofa but its a rare thing.  However, he loves being up on his hind legs and spends lots of time looking over the fence, through the window etc.

In the afternoon Toby has a longer walk – he loves it and comes home a happy content dog – always ready to eat

He still eats sheep poo (and other unspeakable stuff) but not all the time.  He is super with other dogs and never barks at them.  He is no longer chewing the wallpaper (see first pic) or the woodwork (finally thinking we can redecorate the kitchen at last….).

At night he either stays in the kitchen on his bean bag or comes and watches TV – he quite like to watch the TV and moves his head from side to side and then sits right in front of it so no-one can see a thing.

Bedtime is at 10:30 and its outside for a final toilet trip and then into his crate with a markie for bed.  Not a sound out of him!

If I go out for more than half an hour I put him in his crate (do not trust him not to be be bored or lonely) to avoid damage to heaven knows what.

He is such a lovely chap – energetic, stupid, but so loving.

He is super powerful and can knock you over so easily and he is very hard work – but would we be without him – NO !!!

I, Toby the Toddler will be 1 on New Years Day

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY TOBY THE TODDLER!!!

Its Christmas time...

I have decided that “he’s just a puppy” is no longer an answer for Toby’s bad behaviour

Graham is in USA again for 3 weeks, so I am ‘home alone’ with Toby (aka Toblerone, tobi one kenobi etc).  Toby has several faults traits which are less than desireable in a member of our household.  I have decided it is time to put them right before he becomes set in his ways and will never learn.

Number 1
**********

When we go for a walk Toby gets very excited.  He bites my shoes or runs off with my slippers and leaps around my feet.  After a while I try and put on his lead – which he decided is great fun and tries to eat it .  Once we step outside the back door and start to walk, he thinks this means ‘lets play tug-o-war’ and pulls the lead and jumps in the air.  This has to stop.

So now I refuse to put on my shoes until he leaves them alone and every time he puts the lead in his mouth I stop and ignore him until he lets go.  This often means my right arm is almost pulled out of its socket (anyone with a dislocated shoulder should borrow Toby for 2 minutes, they would soon be sorted  out!!).  I ignore him completly and say NO TOBY.  Only when he leaves the lead alone will I walk on.  I have been doing this for a week now with absolutely no progress   I will keep doing it until he gets the message (lets hope its soon)

Number 2
**********

If the doorbell rings he barks and barks and races to the door.  If I open the door he tries to push between my legs and stands there for a minute then shoots outside to jump up whoever is unfortunate enough to be standing there.  Not nice as he is one tall dog when he stands on his hind legs.

Now when the door bell rings I put him on the lead (see problem number 1) and make him SIT away from the door.  I then answer the door (most people have gone by now, but that’s another story…).  I then make sure he has to stay sitting before I let anyone in.  We do this every day – my poor teenage daughters are fed up with this already.  Again we are making absolutely no progress (well slight progress) but I am as determined as he is!

Number 3
**********

Recall – well this is a MAJOR problem for Toby.

When in the kitchen I can make him SIT and stay and when I say COME he races over to me.

When we are in the garden I can say COME and he races over to me.

When we are in a large (empty) field, he will look up and I will flap my arms and say COME and he races over to me.

HOWEVER – when we are in a large field (or anywhere else for that matter) and he finds something/anything remotely interesting (leaf, twig, sheep poo, wind blowing in wrong direction or ANY DISTRACTION WHATSOEVER), he is blind, deaf and dumb to my calls; running in opposite direction; screeching like a banshee or any other method employed to get his attention.  He completely ignores me.  I have no idea how to get his attention – he just looks up at me and then carries on with what he is doing.  If I walk in opposite direction he will eventually come over to me, but only when it suits him .  I have tried having his favourite treats etc all to no avail.  I NEED HELP as I really do not know how to fix this.

99% of the time it is not a problem as we live in a rural area and walk in fields, woods, farmland etc and do not meet many other dogs or people on our walks so the fact that he does not come has not been problematic.  But I need him to come when called 100% of the time, otherwise that 1% will be life or death situation and I will not be able to control him.

Number 4
**********

Toby is was not allowed on the sofa! I have given up – he WINS

Number 5
**********

He likes to bring me something in his mouth when he sees me.  This can be anything.  Problem is all soft toys have been destroyed – he chews them to destruction.  He also likes to grab the cushions off the chairs (never done so much sowing as I have in the last few months) and chews them.  He is getting better at this (and my sewing is improving too).  He no longer has any “cuddlies” and even his sky kennel (very hard plastic) is looking the worse for wear in certain areas.  The door frame is wrecked and many other items – too numerous to mention.  He is getting better but I have to be very very vigilant with him. Please tell me this gets better ?

Number 6
**********

Eating unspeakable things on our walks.  Toby is very fond of fox and sheep poo (and any anything else that makes you go “YUK”).  However much I say leave or NO he ignores and then runs circles around me so he can go back to it, or worse still lies on the floor looking as if I am about to beat him to within an inch of his life – daft dog !.  I stand over the offending object and he WILL NOT LEAVE IT ALONE.  He runs off and then double back to go and roll in it.  I then try and put lead on him which leads us straight back to problem number 1 and we end up with him lying down, biting at his lead which I struggle to get over his head etc.  Nightmare!

I love him to bits and we have had some lovely walks lately.  This week I have kept him on his extending lead on some of the walks which has worked brilliantly.  He does not seem to mind and I have some level of control in making him LEAVE the awful stuff etc.  I give him plenty of time to stop and wee and sniff etc and we are both calmer as a a result. 

I feel guilty though for not letting him run free as I love to see him chasing across the field or running in huge circles around me.  the compromise at the moment is the short walk in the wheat field is lead free and the long walk elsewhere is 80% on the lead and 20% off.  Heaven knows if this is a good idea but keeps me sane right now.

Lets hope by the time Graham comes home we have some improvement – otherwise he will wonder what I have been doing the whole time he has been away.  Now must get back to the washing, ironing, cooking, cleaning, gardening etc.

Toby’s day starts at about 7am. Graham (usually) goes downstairs and lets Toby outside for his morning “constitutional”. Toby has an unimaginable capacity for wee/poo – where does it all come from?. He then goes back to bed until we all come downstairs and our morning gets under way – the frantic rushing and shouting as we try and get two teenage daughters upand ready for school. Toby rushes about, scratching everything and everyone with his long claws and makes a general nuisance of himself. At 7:45 the house goes quiet again as Graham goes to work and the girls catch the school bus. Toby will go back to bed for about half-hour – then he starts to yap or worse – he starts to chew the door frame or the wallpaper!

At about 8:15 we go for the first of our walks. This is usually a short walk (I am not a morning person). We go across the sheep field (trying to avoid the sheep poo which toby loves) into the second field, which is a wheat field (or was). He rushes around as if trying to create crop circles. He does huge circles around me and dashes about like a mad thing. He loves this field and does his 2nd and sometimes third poo of the day!. He tries to pull up the wheat stalks and tosses them in the air and if a bird flies up he will chase it but its a very half-hearted attempt. If he can discover some fox poo or better still and dead and decaying bird then he will not leave it and rolls around it – yuk!

We spend about 20 minutes on this walk then its back home for breakfast. He then follows me everywhere for about half an hour and then I try an get him to stay in his bed and setttle down for a while.

I should mention at this point that when I first appear in the morning Toby goes crazy . He looks around for soemthing to put in his mouth – usually his large bed blanket and drags it around and tries to give it to me. If he cannot grab anything fast enough then he grabs my arm – he never “bites” it just tries to grab my arms – eventually he replaces the bed – which is now scattered across the kitchen and picks up a toy and bring that to me, all the time jumping and dancing and spinning around the kitchen. This last for about 5 minutes before he calms down.

Toby by his bed

If you look closely at the above picture, you can see the wall on the right shows his handwork!

At about 11:30 Toby is bored and wants some company. I then go downstairs and do some household chores. If I am near the work surfaces or the cooker, Toby feels it is his duty to stand between me and the cooker and pushes his way between my legs or leans against me pinning me to the wall. This is cute, but a bit of a pain, and if I try and move I have to unravel myself from this velcro puppy.

We then have a longer walk at lunchtime (about 40 minutes) – he poos again! and then back home for a repeat of the morning. At about 4pm we go for another half hour walk – he poos again!

Dinner is at about 5:30 and then he follows everyone around jumping up on them and generally being a pesky mutt. He goes to bed at about 10:30.

At the weekend Graham is training Topby to run beside the bike. This weekend it was nice and sunny (a rare treat in itself). Toby was fantastic and ran beside the bike. He even went for a swim. Toby is not a good swimmer – he holds his head up high and just splashes like a mad thing – he loves it!

swimming - sort of!

you can see from the huge splashes that he is no Michael Phelps.

practice makes perfect

He loves the longer walks at the weekend. It is a long straight country road and it is rare to meet anyone else on this road. Lots of sheep in the fields to watch. He never chases them or barks at them -he just likes to watch them.

I want to be a sheep dog!!!

Toby has a pretty good routine and spends most of his time with me, in his bed or racing around the farm and the fields – what a life.  However, he is far from angelic.  He still jumps up people far too often, his walking on the lead is far from perfect and he chews things he shouldn’t.  If he grabs something and you tell him to “DROP” he thinks that means “lets play” and just runs off with it.  He is a terrible thief and grabs things he shouldn’t and runs off with them. 

In the morning when I put on my walking boots he thinks he should put them in his mouth and run off with them.  It is not easy putting on a wet and slobbery welly boot when you are in no mood to go out in the rain – again!  He loves a bit of wood to chew up or the odd stone to chew on.

He does not like being alone and barks to get your attention.  When I go out I put him in his newly acquired airline crate.  This serves two purposes.  firstly it gets him used to being in there ready for our big transatlantic flight to california next year and secondly I know the house is safe whilst I am out.  He never minds getting in there.  However he has found the side of the crate a nice big lump of plastic to chew on in the past, so it already looks a liitle the worse for wear.  I now have the corner covered over otherwise it will be of no use when we move:-)

Terrible picture of toby eating my welly boot!

The picture above is Toby passing me my welly so we can go out.  It is very blurred as he will not sit still longer enough to get a picture.  !

Could write loads more, but do not want to bore you with Toby Tales  all day.

Must dash -  he is eating the door frame again!