My latest guest star: Toby the Bodeguero

So... the good news:

• Toby did not murder any rats in my garden.
• Toby LOVED his trip to the beach using the 10 meter lead...freedom, oh freedom!!!
• Toby is a totally gifted clam digger.
• Toby is excellent with unknown dogs - tail wagging city!
• Toby looks very smart in his new royal purple harness and leash (and is no longer in danger of choking himself on walks).
• Toby is the world's best cuddler and just wants to be in your arms 24/7.
• Toby got down his 5 pills and took his sub-Q shot like a prince.

And the not so good news:

• Toby wants to bark at and bite (if he could) every stranger he sees.
• Toby wants to bite my hair, hands, legs, arms and every other body part.
• Toby had to have crate time-out while I ate dinner because he tried to throw himself into my salad bowl and baste himself in yoghurt dressing.
• Toby farts like a dog at least 10 times his size.
• Toby is still falling asleep standing up and then giving himself a concussion when he falls over.
• Toby is too spazzy to eat much or to be interested in the chewies or stuffed Kong I gave him.

The best news: After cuddle time on the bed, Toby is now asleep in his crate.

He fell asleep standing up, but then fell into the side of the crate and slid down the side without waking up. Guess it was a good trip to the beach after all.

On to day three!

 

The best news:
After Toby, a Lab puppy will seem like a walk (sin bodeguero!) in the park

 

Sounds like you've done a great job in just a few days. Good biting practice,

 

I was thinking the same - Toby is like the test dog for crocopup! Or put another way, he's pre-tenderising me.

 

Wow what an interesting pup.

I know the killing part is a bit icky....but if you have rats in your garden why not let him have at 'er??

Weird about the falling asleep standing up. Definitely a new one for me, too...do they all do that?

 

He sounds like quite a character, but the type of character that's fun to read about and not fun to own! What type of pet home could he realistically end up in? Sounds like he needs a job to do, such as...killing the rats in your garden?

 

No idea - he's my first Bodeguero. But I suspect not. His backstory is that he was out on a farm (this is farm country here) and on a two meter chain outside with no shelter for the first year of his life. He barked all the time, was reported by neighbours as a nuisance, then taken to the killing station to be put down, where the rescue group saved him. He's been with them for about six months. Maybe the falling asleep standing up thing is a leftover from his days as a de facto watchdog? I would imagine there are scary things out there at night on the campo, and being able to sleep standing up may simply have been a survival tactic. Or it's just a special Toby quirk - no way to know!

 

I think he would be great for someone really active - a runner, hiker, etc. Also he seems to get along wonderfully with other dogs, so a multi-dog household would help keep him entertained. There is no shortage of rats out here either, so anyone living in the country would probably be quite thrilled with his special skills in that area.

He learns very quickly and really likes to stay close to what he pegs as "his human", so I think if he had someone consistent his more irritating behaviours (which are really just exaggerated puppy behaviours and attention-seeking) would extinguish. His energy level is totally normal for his breed, so anyone who likes small terriers and Bodegueros in particular wouldn't be put off by that at all. Remember, I'm used to big, slow mastiff-type dogs, so Toby is a bit of a shock to my system.

Actually, this breed is usually pretty easy to get adopted out in this part of Spain. Toby's biggest issue is that he is Leishmaniosis positive. All this means in practicality is that he needs to take one inexpensive tablet per day for the rest of his life. But Leish has a very bad rep - people think it is contagious to people or other animals (it isn't) or that the treatment is expensive (it isn't). But hopefully he'll find a home where that doesn't matter. He's in a very good rescue group - very kind and determined people - so he will either get a good new home or stay in his next foster home permanently as the woman who is taking him on Saturday keeps their special-needs long term fosters.

 

I'm really proud of Toby (and myself to be honest) today. He's terribly needy when it comes to attention, and this takes the form of him scratching and biting any body parts he can get to until he gets a pet. Obviously he has learned this and it needs to be unlearned, pronto. Yesterday I sat at my table to work and learned that if I twisted my body around away from him (gave him my back) and was completely still and quiet, he would scratch and bite but eventually give up. By the end of the day, he was standing at my feet and waiting to be petted instead of scratching. It was getting kind of pitiful, though, because I can't pet him all the time (I'm working) and he kept falling asleep standing up and then falling over.

So today I moved to the couch hoping that he could sit beside me and maybe even snooze. We had a good long jog this morning, his belly is full...surely he could settle down? So I sat on the couch with my work computer and the whole attack/scratch/bite thing from yesterday started all over again. I would turn my back and he'd just go for it. If he stopped even for a second, I'd turn back to my laptop and continue, but not praise him until he settled. Which he didn't. After a couple rounds of getting walloped for a good minute or so, I quietly put him in his crate with his chew toys and Kong. If he was calm in the crate for at least 2 minutes, I got him out and we started all over again. We had multiple cycles of bite/scratch -->crate over the next two hours and finally he just got it. I may be bruised, tenderised by tiny teeth (and I think he ate a good chunk of my hair), but Toby is now sleeping next to me on the couch!!! Yay!!!

As I don't dare get up to take a picture, I took this with my MacBook camera. It's a terrible photo, but so proud of sleeping Toby!

 

Oh Toby you will be a lap dog soon

 

Oh bless him!
And you too Emily xx

 

Sweet boy. How horrible to think of his first year being so utterly miserable. Sleep must be/ will be so much more restful for him now - imagine he was quite exhausted a lot of the time having to keep his wits about him all night.

 

Aww I'm glad he's settling with you, Emily. It's so sad to think of all the dogs out there who haven't had very nice lives.

I really think our next dog will be a rescue. I feel guilty sometimes that we "shopped" rather than adopted. But I'm also glad Stanley will always be safe and know how loved he is.

 

I don't think you should feel guilty at all. There is a place for both rescues and good dog breeders. Plus you never would have wanted to miss out on Stanley - but you know that already!

 

The sleeping on the couch and not behaving like a deranged loon didn't last long. He woke up and it was like someone hit his "reset" button and we were back to the ignore/crate/pet cycle again. But I do think he got it for a moment so we'll just try again tomorrow.

His latest thing is tonight he realised that he could see his reflection in the glass doors after dark. Of course, he doesn't realise it's his reflection and thinks it's another dog trying to come into HIS house, so he was barking his fool head off.

I'm kind of not sure whether to sit down and laugh at him or slowly bang my head against the wall.
I can't believe he's only been here for 2.5 days. How do you all you puppy people manage it? I need some good drugs or something.

And yeah, having said that, I'm already sad thinking he's only here a week. I guess I'm as loony as he is.

 

I can't really imagine it. And what I truly can't figure out is why he loves cuddles so much if he never had any human contact. It's like he's hard wired to be a teddy bear or something. I've known a lot of street dogs and ex-campo dogs and what they generally have in common is that they are NOT cuddly, human attention-seeking creatures. With Toby it's like he's saying, "Hey, I missed out on this for my whole life...to make up for it, can't I just permanently glue myself to your chest and gaze adoringly up at you while you scratch my left ear?"

 

Just enjoy you will have helped a sweet dog get closer to a new home

 

Us dog people are - we keep coming back for more. I'm completely lost without a crocapup in the house! I love Tatze to bits, but she snoozes the day away when not out on her walks or being 'persuaded' to play by the pup


Bbb

 

I've discovered Toby's superpower: world's best cuddler. I knew that if you flipped him on his back he went into a coma, but tonight we got home from a day of nearly three hours of walks and I was just too tired to even make dinner. So instead I started a doc on Netflix, chucked him onto my chest belly up and we just communed on the sofa. Not two minutes in, his head flips back and all I can see is a row of tiny little bottom teeth and cheeks puffing out at he snuffles in his sleep. Neither of us moved for 1.5 hours. It was transcendent.

 

In what does not come as a huge surprise, Toby's long-term foster fell through and my contact for his rescue group told me she made arrangements for him to go to a boarding kennel tomorrow and asked if I could drop him off. He is NOT going to a boarding kennel on my watch, so he'll be with me for at least two more weeks.

Oh god, I'm going to turn into a terrier person.

On the bright side, I figure if I can survive Toby, I'll be so much better prepared for a crocopup.

Today was the first morning that I couldn't take him out for a long jog in the morning as I had too much work to do. I figured I'd make it up in a long evening walk. Very dumb. It was a crazy day of being in meetings while Toby was literally jumping up on me and biting me on the boob. Thank goodness it was Skype audio only and not video, too. That would have been hard to explain!

But the psycho spring-loaded dog was my fault due to lack of morning exercise and I won't make that mistake again. In all other areas, I'm seeing slow but steady improvements as he settles in. He actually played with some of his toys today and danced around the beach this evening like a loon. It's the first time I've seen him play. He also cries very little in the car now and while I wouldn't say that he LIKES his crate, he lays down to rest fairly quickly instead of falling asleep while standing and then sliding down the side of the crate with a thunk.

Geez, this is how my love of chihuahuas started. "I'll just take one for a week and I can't fall in love because they are nasty, bitey, unpleasant little dogs". And within two weeks I was smitten by the little suckers and still love them.

Oh god, I'm going to turn into a terrier person.