The story of me and Toby, and Post-Maxie Life pt. 3

Although finally getting the dog I wanted waned a lot of my dislike for Toby, over the years he still just faded into the background of my life. I pretty much did everything with Panic, and if I wanted to take two dogs along with me somewhere, to do agility or go for a walk, it would be him and Maxie. I was fine with leaving Maxie and Toby both behind, but there was no way I would EVER just leave Maxie alone with her sad, sad eyes. Maxie and Panic were both very fun and for the most part very easy dogs. Toby, on the other hand, counts as about 2.5 dogs. He demands your full attention, not just because of his potential reactivity. He is also incredibly injury prone, has a knack for getting filthy in any situation, has the highest prey-drive of any dog I've ever had, and tends to disappear if you take your eye off him. He is also incredibly strong. He can easily pull me over or knock me down with his enthusiasm. A few examples of Toby-ness.

• Toby goes out into the yard. He runs around briefly and returns to the door unable to open his left eye.


• Toby goes out into the yard. He returns to the door limping on any given foot, depending on the day. Oftentimes this is due to having a luxating patella in one back leg, but we've learned to just pop that knee back in place. Cringe.


• Toby goes out into the yard on a dry day. It hasn't rained in weeks. He returns to the door completely coated in mud.


• Toby goes for a leashed walk around the neighborhood and returns soaking wet and covered in mud.


• I am putting the dogs in the car, a task I don't feel the need to leash them up for as they love going places and always run right to the car door. Toby, instead, takes off running full speed down the street, heading towards...nothing? Something? I can't see anything, but he seems very determined to get somewhere.

I could go on. Toby has been injured and gone missing on countless occasions to the point that these things don't really cause us any alarm, unless of course it is clearly something severe. The point being, he is quite a lot of dog to handle.



Maxie's death and Toby's aging (he's 10 now) have made it a lot easier to take both dogs with me. My mom went out of town for a week at the beginning of the summer. It was the first time my mom and Toby would be separated for more than a night since we got him. We were both worried he would wilt, but in reality he seemed to do much, much better with me when she left. I took both he and Panic with me most places, even out to our agility training center, something I hadn't attempted with him in years and years. My mom used to take him to do agility periodically, but nearby gunshots a few years ago rendered him petrified of the place even more so than before. He was scared at first to go with me, but I let him wander the field while I worked with Panic and he got more comfortable. If he sought me out for a treat, we would have a party. Slowly we started doing some obstacles (followed of course by "WOW Toby you're so amazing you're the smartest best dog ever WOWOWOWOWOW!!!).

Last week I took him and Panic out there again. He was nervous in the parking lot, but as soon as we got in the agility building he started bounding around like a puppy, randomly doing tunnels and trying to play with Panic. He happily did sequences of 5-10 obstacles. Success? Success. It only took us 9 years.

Toby is a good boy. He tries harder than any dog I've ever known. He is goofy and funny and sweet, albeit lacking in the brains department. There are a lot of things in my life that I'd wish I'd done differently, but honestly, none of these things are a part of that. I know that without Toby, I never would have gained as much knowledge about dog training and behavior. Without Toby, I never would have Panic. And certainly without us, I'm not quite sure where Toby would be right now.

Thank you, Toby.