My latest guest star: Toby the Bodeguero

While I appreciate the sentiment, Toby clearly has past kitty experience that we didn't know about. And there was no way that I could socialise him with a cat since I don't have one. Unless you count me repeating to him every ten minutes over the last few days, "Toby, you LOVE cats...cats are your BEST friends...cats are WONDERFUL." That I DID do, but I'm not sure it was all that effective.

Finding him his new home was all done by the wonderful volunteer at Dog Planet in Cadiz, the small but mighty rescue organization that saved Toby from the killing station. It is all volunteer run by local Spanish people with very few resources and pretty much gets by on heart and backbone. My contact works a full time job, has three rescue dogs and a cat of her own and yet somehow manages to save dogs in her non-existant spare time, all with a perpetual smile and good humour. She is working with her UK contacts and somehow together they found Toby's new home and are managing a safe and caring transport to the UK. All credit to them!

 

Brilliant boy!!

 

Um what I meant was: stuffing him full of chicken beforehand!

In all seriousness though, I'm pretty sure your kindness to him made a massive difference.

 

Genuine question - when you speak to Toby do you speak to him in Spanish or English.

I was just speaking to OH about it and thinking whether he'd have to re-learn any commands in English

 

Wonderful news for the little chap , brilliant x

 

Ah...that I DID do! I've never seen his little belly so round - he probably thought it was doggie Christmas!

 

I started out in Spanish because I didn't want EVERYTHING to be new to him. But it was pretty obvious no one had really talked to him all that much or he's just not real keyed-in to verbal communication and language wasn't all that important. Now it's all English, all the time. Which is just as well as that's what he'll be hearing in the future!

He doesn't know any verbal commands now anyway and responds best to hand signals. What he hears most and seems to understand is "Good boy, good job!" and "Aw, dude...really??".

 

Ah really happy he's all set for the next chapter,bitter sweet for you I'm sure but what an experience for you .I'm still thinking about the poor little fellow falling asleep standing up
Rescue there sounds very much like rescue here,no resources ,no recognition by the authorities ,just wonderful ,selfless people winging it the best they can .....
So we have a good idea about Toby,but what next for Emily on the course of her Doggie Adventures? X

 

Nice Btw, what does a cat test involve?

 

Yay Toby! I was really nervous about the cat test (I always assume the worst with terriers) but wow, that little man is full of surprises! I'm going to miss your stories about him, and his stories about himself I loved his tour of Cadiz, and found the anecdote about Havana very interesting. And the best video was just the sweetest. I'm sure he'll make his new family very happy

 

Yes, it's pretty dire here though may be even more so where you are. I'm very grateful to have met - through the dreaded Facebook no less - my contact at Dog Planet. I was getting a very bad attitude towards the way Spanish treat dogs (you can actually see that in some of my earlier posts on this thread) and had started to think I just never even wanted to come back to Spain, but meeting this small group of local people working so hard to change things has given me a more balanced perspective. Yes, the prevalent ideas are definitely not good for dogs, but there are - as you say - wonderful selfless people working to change that.

Good question! Plan A last summer was a well-chosen dog from a breeder. Then this fall Plan A became find a rescue and Plan B was the breeder route. Then after a very depressing two months here in Spain trolling shelters and rescues, Plan A became the breeder route again but with an optimistic hope that Plan B (rescue) might still work.

I met my wonderful contact at Dog Planet through her Facebook post on Crios (his photo is at the beginning of this thread). Crios is a magnificent boy, but unfortunately way too large to fit under an airplane or train seat, which for my weird life is really essential. I was then introduced to the sweet, sweet boy Tigre. He is Toby's "black beast" earlier in this thread. He reminds me so much of Brogan, both physically and temperament-wise. He has some behavioural challenges, but so did Brogan at that age. But I've been very honest from the first meeting both with my rescue contact and with Tigre's foster mum: the real issue is that he is on the banned breed list where I live in Germany and multiple countries where I travel.

It was a huge decision for me to not get another Rottweiler and this decision was based on my experiences with Brogan of the authorities and the general public plus tightening breed laws. I either live in or regularly travel to countries where a dog can be seized simply because of the way they look, not behaviour or whatever breed they might actually be. With his gorgeous brindle colouring, Tigre would actually be in a much worse position than Brogan, as he could easily be categorised as pit bull or presa canario mix, meaning he would fall under even worse restrictions than a Rottweiler.

What this means for Tigre is that I could not protect him, which is literally my worst fear. So sadly, I do not think he is "my dog" either. Though as long as I am in Spain, I will continue to visit him and his lovely foster mum, who has now become a friend. And maybe I will be able to help some other way in his story...you never know where dogs lead us!

So for me, that means that Plan A (breeder) remains Plan A and Plan B (rescue) remains something that I will continue to keep my mind and heart (and hopes) open to.

In the meanwhile, Toby has taught me and continues to teach me so much. I am going to enjoy the heck out of him for the ten days that he has left with me and cry my eyes out when I take him to Malaga to start his long trip to the UK and his new life.
I'm very grateful to the lovely ladies of Dog Planet for giving me the opportunity to know him along his journey.

 

He sure is! I was quite shocked but oh so proud of the little man. I think he's gotten a billion extra kisses the last couple days!

To which Toby says:

"No kisses...just belly rubs...ahhhh...yes, si, that's better!"

 

It was my first "cat test" so no idea if it was typical, but it was all a little crazy. Plus of course I'm trying to keep up with the Spanish so for me it was just total chaos. I met my contact at her house and then we drove together to a friend of hers' apartment. This involved me trying to parallel park, but luckily Toby is better with cats than I am with parking - how embarrassing!

Then we got to this apartment, which was a totally normal-sized apartment but seemed tiny as it was jammed with four dogs, five people and the famous cat. There was another dog (an adorable GSD puppy) who was also being tested and will be on the same transport to the UK as Toby. The cat was on a cat tree and it's eyes were enormous - probably more from all the strange humans than the dogs.

Frankly, with all the other action, I don't think Toby even noticed the cat for at least the first 15 minutes. I finally picked him up and brought him within a meter or so of the cat, and he just wasn't all that interested. His attitude was more, "Yeah, that's a cat...but I think there's something to sniff over there so could you put me down please?" Later he was a little more curious, but still respectful to the cat's space and in no way aggressive or in hunting mode. I KNOW hunting mode in Toby by now and that was my big fear, that he would see a cat as "prey". But no, not in the slightest. I think he must have had cat buddies in the past, as he definitely sees them as friends and NOT food.

Later at the vet he got more up close and personal with the two office cats and was the same... calm, curious and respectful. So double cat test and "pass" on both!

 

When we first got Casper from Ireland, he was was five, so we thought he must have some cues under his belt! We tried the usual, sit, stay, come, down, paw...he would look at us completely mystified with his gorgeous very serious face on..then slowly roll on his back for a tummy rub. We even tried Irish accents..Casper just looked a bit troubled then. Not because he was stressed, more he was worried about us! So we just started everything from scratch. Blake was the same from Cyprus. We didn't even try any Greek, just started training from day one. Blake was incredibly quick at picking things up though.

 

Well done Toby - would you come and give Tatze some lessons?


...

 

Hello I am th elucky lady who will be homing Toby in the UK. As we already have a Toby we will be renaming Toby - Alfonso or Alfie. My children and I looked at all the pics we had been sent and feel that this name really suits him. I just hope he likes it or we could be in trouble. My Toby is a Romanian Rescue and sadly went blind last summer. He used to walk and run for miles but has bow become very sedate. This has resulted in me becoming very sedate. After reading this blog I can see a major lifestyle change coming our way. I am very excited and full of trepidation as well BUT we will work together and give Alfie (Toby) a loving home, I hope. xxx

 

Welcome to the forum! How lovely to read a post from Alfie/Toby's new humans.

Enjoy your last remaining days of 'sedate'

 

I love "Alfonso" - I can hear his Spanish accent! And the big character that he is.

 

Welcome! I'm so glad you decided to come here! As I mentioned in my email, I love Toby's new name - it suits him very well.

As @Oberon says, I think "sedate" is history. On the other hand, I don't think you will need to give Alfie (I need to get used to that!) as much exercise as I do. First, he was bouncing off the walls when he came to me from the kennel, so there was a good week just to get him down to "normal hyper". Then, I live alone and work all day at home in front of my computer. This is catatonically and catastrophically boring for a dog, which is why at minimum he gets a jog in the morning and a long walk at night. Everything in the middle is BORING, poor little guy.

With you he will have multiple humans, another dog (he will LOVE that) and a kitty. He is especially good with other dogs - well, except huge black monster dogs who try to run him down and pounce on him. He's never really forgiven Tigre for that.

And never forget his cuddling superpower - if you get tired of the hyper, you just pick him up, flip him over and rub his spotty belly. Instant trance. It's really pretty astonishing. He'll do it anywhere. Honestly, it's even how I've figured out to get him over his fear of bicycles. Right in the street, just pick him up and rub his belly.

He's one cool little dude and a primo cuddler. Photographic proof from about 2 seconds ago...

 

I love him already, x