Introducing: Toby!

We officially have a new member of our family! His name is Toby and he is a 3 year old English Springer Spaniel.

About a month ago, I submitted an application to be a part of Springer Resuce. We've known for awhile now that we wanted a springer spaniel and wanted to go through the rescue league (since they do such great things for dogs). Initially, we wanted to get a puppy BUT once we starting talking more realistically about it, I knew I just didn't have the energy to train a puppy AND chase after Josie.

Our application was approved within a week (much faster than I expected) but we weren't actively "looking" for a dog yet.

Last weekend, our local ESRA liaison gave me a call to let me know that a 3 year old Springer had been surrendered to our local Humane Society. She met with him and thought he would be PERFECT for our family.

After passing the Humane Society's behavioral tests, we were allowed to meet Toby last night. The HS was skeptical that he would do well around young children (since he was very afraid, in general). I think he was only scared for about 30 seconds before he was snuggling up to all of us.

We had no intention on bringing him home last night BUT we didn't want him to spend another night at the shelter SO we took him home with us. We expected him to be nervous or anxious the first night at our house, but made himself at home right away. It's like he's always been here!

He's a total ball of mush. He just wants to be loved all the time. He definitely thinks he's a lap dog (which is fine by me...since I've had MUCH bigger lap dogs in my life).

Toby LOVES to play fetch; and will chase the tennis ball all day long (until you stop to go do something else...and then when you come back he's asleep on the floor).

He is housebroken already. He knows basic commands like "sit", "down", "drop". Not gonna lie, that was the selling point for me (well that and his face...how sweet is he?!).

He is totally submissive and  very gentle. Absolutely zero aggression (which is funny b/c the first person I talked to at the HS told me he was way too aggressive to be adopted by a family with children. I'm glad I didn't let that deter me). This dog does not have a mean bone in his body. As soon as he runs over to see you, he immediately rolls over and shows you his belly. Definitely not an alpha male.

He is very tolerant of Josie, and is also very aware of her. He makes sure not to push by her (even in the heat of play). According to his previous owners, he's very comfortable with children (they had 5 kids) and loved to play with them (which is definitely true).

Josie loves him (but is totally unaware he's even in the house anymore). She was trying to "read" her board books this morning on the floor, and Toby kept laying on them (in order to get closer to her). Yea, she was NOT impressed. Haha!

I suspect his previous owner (who bought him from a breeder) got him to be a hunting dog, but didn't have time to train him. I also suspect that he was trained on a bark collar; since he hasn't made a sound since we met him last night.

The only thing we need to train him on is going up and down the stairs. He definitely has never encountered stairs before (So Tim carried him downstairs to go to sleep...then back upstairs this morning to go outside). We'll get over that this weekend (there's some bacon thawing that I think will be *just* the trick to get him motivated to conquer the stairs).

Basic Stats:

*3 years old (his birthday is in January, so he JUST turned 3)

*Male; neutered

*Purebred (black and white coloring)

*About 35 pounds

*Likes long walks on the beach and sunsets

*lover, not a fighter




**What you can't see in all these photos is his little stubby tail wagging non stop**