Toby

Meet Toby! Toby is an eight-year-old Chihuahua and Mini Pin mix who weighs 10 pounds. If you are looking for a shadow who will do the best happy dance when you come home, Toby is your guy... If you are willing to let him warm up to you at his own pace and use positive training methods with him. He is pretty sensitive and fearful of new situations. He is wary of humans and dogs and needs time to warm up to you and other animals. Toby has taken quite well to his foster parents and especially loves his foster dad. In less than a week he started to play and wiggle his bum when he saw the adults. Toby will snuggle tons but he needs time and patience before he will let you pick him up. He is especially not fond of it if there are other dogs around or something he is wary of, like the stairs. We are practicing saying "UP" when we pick up so he gets used to the cue and knows why we are reaching for him. A month in and when he wants to get up he walks towards you but when you reach out he moves back, lol. He will do this a few times all the while whining that he isn’t being picked up! Toby will only crate when you aren't in the room, so he snuggles with his foster Dad in bed overnights. He does well in the crate when he is left home alone. Toby is potty trained for outdoors. After one or two marking incidents when he first arrived he was fine to be left uncrated overnight and when left for errands during the day Toby is a playful and loving guy! He adores his foster Dad especially but will hang out with, kiss, and play with his foster Mom too. He wants to be with his human all the time. If there is a bed on the floor he is happy to be there, but if another dog is in the room he prefers your lap. Toby has shown food resource guarding. He will bite/nip when guarding and will need an adopter willing to use positive reinforcement to work through this. - UPDATE: It has been a month since Toby came to his foster home. He is no longer fearful of us, the dogs, or guarding the adults from the kids sneaking into bed. Toby does not play with the other dogs in foster who are all bigger than him. He does warm up after about a month or so and tolerates them all around him. He will even attempt to mount them sometimes but he doesn’t want them attempting any play with him as of yet. Toby has recently stayed in a home with another Chihuahua. They don't play together yet but do stick together everywhere. UPDATE: Toby did not want his nails clipped or to receive his ear medicine drops. If you attempt to force Toby to be held and try to clip his nails or force him to have his ear medicine He will air snap growl and snap at your hand without leaving any marks. Foster has been working with muzzle training to get him used to the muzzle in order for him to be okay with wearing the muzzle. This will need to be continued so that he can have safe vet visits safe grooming and safe medicine giving if he ever meets his ears treated again. He does not need a muzzle or attempt to bite in any other situation since being with his foster home for over a month except when he's forced and held against his will and his signals go ignored. . . . If you are interested in finding out more about Toby, please fill out an application on our website by copying and pasting the following link into your browser: http://bit.ly/2JnZqK5 Toby is being fostered in Clinton and the adoption fee is $350. NOTE: Visual breed identification in dogs is unreliable, so for most of the dogs we are only guessing at the predominant breed or breed mix. We get to know each dog as an individual and will do our best to describe each of our dogs based on personality, not by breed label. We expect that all adopted dogs will enroll in a formal dog training class with their new owners. Obedience and training classes are an excellent way to learn more about your newly adopted dog, gain handling and training experience, and improve your relationship with your pet. MA Rescue License 0139