The Birthday Boy!

What a day! I started out going to Church this morning and then I had planned to take Toby for a special Birthday bath and then to the toy store for a special Birthday toy. A dear friend called me and asked if I wanted to take the Boys to the park. What a great Idea Dori! So I met Dori and Boomer and another dog that she has been keeping for a friend at Breckenridge park. It seems that everyone in the group has visited there here recently. It was a lovely day. The dogs had a blast. It was great seeing the dogs with huge grins on their faces. I was a little nervous because this was the first time that I have taken Toby to a wooded area and allowed him to run without a leash. Very spooky! Toby did great! I did not do so bad either! Toby would wonder a head just a little and then he would check in with me. After a little while and some encouragement from my friend I was able to relax.


I took my new Camcorder with me. I had planned on getting lots of pictures. Well, I think I need to practice a little more before posting any pictures. It seems that I got a lot of videos of back sides and grass. There were even a few of Toby taking care of business. But thanks a bunch to my friend I have a few pictures of the Birthday boy and his friend. All in all Toby had a wonderful Birthday. My little boy is growing up. He is now three. He is also very tired and is sleeping like a log. Happy Birthday Toby my angel!

The Birthday Boy!

What a difference a year makes!

First I would like to start off wishing Everyone a very Merry Christmas. Ours has been just absolutely wonderful! For one thing, the weather was just beautiful. Just a year ago it had been raining nonstop for days. On Christmas morning I finally gave up and let the Tobes out to play in the mud.(see picture to the right) What a mess. I think that made his Christmas last year. This year Santa brought him a large stuffed Sheep and of coarse low fat cookies for the cookie monster. It was such a blast watching him unwrap his gifts. Santa was very good to me! He gave me a digital recorder with all the bells and whistles on it. I also got a WinBook. This was a first for me. This is a digital Picture frame. Once you up load all your pictures to it the pictures are shown as a slide show. It only took me all day to figure our how to work this one. I guess it will take me about a week to learn the video recorder. Watch out because once I have it figured out you will be overloaded with pictures! Back to work tomorrow. Such a short Holiday this year. Looking on the bright side of things Toby will turn 3 on December 30th. I plan on giving Toby a full day of activities. His special day!

We are moving on!

Sorry that it has taken me so long to update everyone on the Tobesters. With the end of the year coming around soon its a wonder I even have time for my angel. Here it goes. WE PASSED P2! I am so relieved. I am not sure why I would have any doubts. Toby is a great dog and does very well in a structured environment. I still need to work on his cross in fronts. Everything else is doing great. I need to make sure we don't back slide. In January Toby and I will be working basic obedience and obedience for agility (P3). The basic obedience has been a blessing. Everyday I learn how to keep Toby learning things just in everyday life. Poor Toby he has to work for everything. I mean everything! He is getting very strong in his stays. The only time I have problems with his recall in when he is in the back yard. I have to be very careful on this one. If I am not I will blow his recall. I always have a wonderful cookie in my hand when I call him in. He should not be out there doing self rewarding behavior at all! But, after being inside all day long he has to have some fun. When I get home from work we spend about 2 hours playing tug and squeaky ball. Two hours is just not enough for him. So I let him go to the back yard for a bit before going to bed. I have noticed that on nights we have class Toby is very tired at the end of the day. This is a good thing. Well this is all for now. I will try to post more often in the new year.

I almost forgot! Toby will be 3 yrs old on Dec. 30th. I can't wait until his birthday! Daddy is making him a mini A-Frame. Shhhhhh! Its a secret!

A Tired Dog is a Happy Dog

Poor Toby, he has had a very long day. We got up early and I took Toby to DDC (Doggie Day care). When the weather is wet and the ground is soggy Toby gets to go play with his friends at the Snout. How he loves the Snout! Anyway, after taking Toby to the Snout I went shopping. Got a lot of my Christmas shopping done. When I got home I had an email from the instructor stating that anyone who was in the Tuesday night class could come Tonight since the weather is suppose to get worse and she had a few drop out of the Monday night class. Needless to say Toby was worn slam out before we even got to class. In some ways I think that that might have been good. We worked on our stays. I think Toby was just so tired that a bomb could have gone off beside him and he wouldn't have cared. We were even inside a barn that he has never been in before. Way to go Tobsters!

As far as his diet goes, I am trying very hard. I so want him to be healthy. It is just very hard when I see him hunting for food all of the time. I am hoping that once we get past P2 and P3 he will be able to burn more calories and won't be as prone to gain weight. At least that is what I am hoping. Until then lots of green beans!

Right at this moment Toby is in his kennel for the evening. It never fails no matter how tired Toby is he comes alive when we get home from class. So I did feed him a snack and put him in his kennel for a while. He needs his rest.

I will do another updated after Thursday night class. That is if we have class. The ground just might be too soggy. We will have to wait and see.

What a long week!

I can't believe that it is Friday already. At least it is my Friday. For me Thursday is the last working day of the week and My brain just wants to shut down. I will first try and give you all an update on the Tobesters.

Tuesday night class was a little tough this week. Toby just doesn't like to drop. I was having a very hard time getting him into the drop position. I was really struggling with it. The instructor came over to help. She was showing me that I needed to push or as she said punch him down into the drop at his neck. Toby did not like that. He yelped and from what she said tried to bite her. I would like to think that Toby was just being a brat. But he could have been hurt also. When he is being a brat he will yelp like you have hurt him when in fact you did not. But if he turns and nips at you you did hurt him. I just hope that this is not going to make it hard for him to pass this class. Absolutely not aggressive dogs will be allowed to move on. Now Toby is not aggressive but did this incident give the impression that he could be aggressive. I sure hope not.

The rest of the class went very well. His stays are getting really good. The instructor used a squeaky ball for distraction. The squeaky caught Toby's attention but He only likes to play squeaky ball in the house. We were good to go there!

Tonight we had to miss out basic obedience class. I had a dinner that I had to attend for work. So nothing new to speak of with the Thursday night class. Hopefully I will have a lot of time to catch everyone up on Toby's training next week.

Thursday night obedience class

Thursday night I took Toby to his obedience class. Here we just work on obedience. Sits,stays,comes,finish those sort of things. At first his stays were OK. Nothing to write home about. But let me tell you by the end of the night I was very proud of my Angel. The instructor tested these dogs to the max. First she stood behind the dogs and whistled, then she took a glove out of her pocket and started waving it around. She waved it in every dogs face. Toby got up I think twice maybe three times. That was all. Then she went and got a jump bar and brought it over and she dropped it in front of every dog. Toby stayed like a champ. The instructor drug the bar across the field in front of the dogs. Nobody moved. Then she picked up a chair and dropped it in front of each of the dogs. Nobody moved. Then a big loud diesel Dooley truck came in the parking lot. I thought for sure this would get Toby. He turned and watch the truck as I stood there praying that he would not move. Yes I had to go over and give him big treats for staying.

Next we worked on our recalls. Toby did real good at first. Then about half way through he started barking at me and jumping on me. I thought he had to do some business. So I took him over to the side. Yes he had some business. Then we went back over to join the class and once again he started to bark at me and jump on me. I thought that maybe he wasn't finished. Not sure what that was all about but he did not have anymore business to do. The instructor thinks that maybe he was just pulling a stunt on me. What a dog! Next time he will have one chance to do his business and after that he will do what he is suppose to do in class. No more funny games to get out of something.