Tobie Edwards
Sad News, 13 March 2024
Tobie’s dad said, “I, just wanted to let you know we lost our Tobie (15 .5 years old) on 13th March. He has been such a lovely dog and not a bit of bother since we collected him from Keren and David of the IRR back in May 2017. We are heartbroken but know he will meet up with Joe, another IRR rescue dog; over the Rainbow Bridge.
Thank you for letting us adopt the Wonderful Tobie we have many happy memories to take comfort from.”
History
Update 10 September 2023: Happy birthday Tobie!
Tobie’s dad, Michael, updated us: “Our Tobie was 15 years old yesterday. He has never been a bit of bother from when we picked him up from Keren in May 2017.
We are so grateful to I.R.R. for the gift of Tobie he’s such a big part of our lives. He is quite sprightly for his age and enjoys his walks with Rio (another member of the I.R.R. family) He is a well-known character in our local area and always gets an “Aaaah!) and cuddles. We are so blessed with our dogs from IRR. Thank you.
History
TOTALLY IN LOVE ( 31.5.2017)
Christine and Michael tell us “We have been totally ”in love” with Tobie from day 1 really, and, more importantly, our Joe is delighted with his new buddy! They bonded straight away and are such good friends now, very comfortable in each other’s company. Joe is such a happy boy again, after sadly losing Sally, recently.
They run together, walk together and snuggle together. It melts our hearts to see them so in tune with each other. There is not a bit of aggression or dominant behaviour from either one of them – they share everything, wait patiently for their food, to be brushed or get treats and are respectful of each other too.
We are very blessed with these 2 gorgeous Goldies and we think they needed each other too. We now have a very happy pack again. Thank you for the “gift” of sweet, loving Tobie – Joe is nodding his head in agreement …… ha ha! “
THERE WAS SADNESS FOR TOBIE AND HIS FAMILY THEN HAPPINESS AGAIN
Tobie and his humans were very sad when Joe passed on 17.2.2020 even though they knew he was re-united with his beloved Sally.
Although broken hearted, Christine and Michael knew that Tobie needed a new friend and that chum arrived, after a long journey up to Inverness, in the shape of the very gorgeous Rio.
HISTORY
Tobie is a sweet, 8year old golden coloured, neutered male Golden Retriever. He is micro-chipped and has seen a vet who found him to be in good health.
Tobie’s owner contacted IRR after hearing about us through friends. He came from a happy home but, as they were moving house and were renting, it meant that they couldn’t take him with them which devastated the family.
We assured the owner that he would get a really fantastic home, as do all our IRR dogs, where he would continue to be treasured and loved forever.
He went into foster in the UK with Keren and her family on 31.3.2017
PERSONALITY
Kathryn said “Tobie has a gentle personality and is very affectionate. He is a lovely friendly boy who just LOVES his cuddles and when we get on the floor to cuddle any of the dogs he pushes himself in to join in and he is welcomed with open arms. He will gently stand on his hind legs to get and give hooman cuddles but with me he seems to know (as I currently walk with a crutch) and will sit and lift his front legs to have a gentle cuddle. Tobie is such a darling darling boy and whoever adopt hims will be very lucky as they will be getting a fabulous boy!”
Tobie is a beautiful dark Goldie who was very, very stressed and quite bewildered when they picked him up. The poor boy has been taken from all he knows so it was understandable he was apprehensive to start with. He was quite quiet in the house and garden and it took him a good week to settle in. However, he had started playing with their dogs in the garden after 3 or 4 days and immediately loved Keren’s husband!
Keren tells us “He was very quiet and withdrawn for the first few days and, after three weeks, poor Tobie still sometimes comes to us looking a little lost but with lots of cuddles, love and fuss he seems to relax again. He does love our company and follows us around the house.
Tobie has a gentle sweet nature. He gets very excited when he gets his breakfast (approx. 6.30am) and, again, when he is given his dinner (6pm) and, I’m pleased to report, he seems to be coming out of his shell”.
SOCIAL LEARNING
He has been on a learning curve with all the new sights and smells and just loves it in the garden! He loves his walks and has settled into a walking and eating routine which seem to work really well for him.
BASIC TRAINING: He understands some basic commands. He will sit when asked and is keen to give you a paw.
Keren says”We get all our dogs to sit at the kerb before crossing the road and Tobie has picked this up well with the help of our dogs showing him the way.
TRAVEL: “Poor Tobie was very nervous, trembling and panting, the whole way home after picking him up. He was very worried about being put in the car in the beginning and he really dug his heels in so we made a conscious effort to take him out in the car for a lot to lovely walks and down to the river etc and it has worked. He now travels well in the car”.
HOUSETRAINING: “Tobie wasn’t fully housetrained and had a couple of accidents in doors, luckily in the kitchen and not on the carpet. This mainly happened because he doesn’t tell you he wants to go out. Luckily, we’ve had the doors open a lot because of the nice weather”.
GROOMING: His general health is good and Keren is taking her time grooming him as he has a very, very thick coat but she is getting there.
SEPARATION ANXIETY: There are no signs of separation anxiety. He sleeps well at night, the landing being his chosen spot, or downstairs in the dog bed in the dining room.
RESOURCE GUARDING: “He is not food aggressive and there has been no evidence of resource guarding.
However, he is very greedy and got very excited at meal time. At first, while we were cooking/preparing meals, he was almost in your face! He would get very excited as we carried our food to the table and tried to steal your food and whatever drink you had. It would have definitely been stolen had we turned our backs on him.
We have been working on this. We never give him any treats/food from the table while we are eating or if we have anything in the lounge. He has got used to that and hardly ever tries to beg from us now”.
LEADWALKING and RECALL: Tobie loves his walks and is getting into a nice feeding and walking routine. He does pull quite a lot on slip lead, halti and harness but through pure excitement. We are letting him off lead (when safe to do so) and he is always very happy to come back to us. This darling boy has proven to love getting into the water when we take him to the river and will chase large sticks or balls into the water.
ADULTS: He is very friendly with both adults and children. When Keren had family round over the Easter weekend, Tobie seemed to just take it all in his stride.
CHILDREN: This fantastic chap has no bad habits and he is great with children, having been brought up with eight of them.
DOGS: “He is very good with other dogs and is very friendly. To start with,Tobie tended to just ignore our three dogs but, suddenly, after being here a few days, he started to play with one of our dogs in the garden. I almost cried because he had been very sad and quite shut down apart from when it got to dinner time!
He’s still quite quiet in the house and garden but loves being out there. He now loves playing tug of war with one of our dogs and likes to have the soft toys to play with.
CATS: He wasn’t cat tested in Ireland. However, as Kathryn says ”He’s great with everything that breathes so I would be surprised if he wasn’t good with cats. He is as gentle as a bunny rabbit and indeed protected two that got out of their hutch by keeping an eye on them as they hopped around the garden”.
Keren says “Toby is quite friendly with cats. He has met our cats and has only chased Gizzy Gum Drops once”.
TOBIE’S DREAM HOME
This wonderful boy would fit into most family situations as an only dog or with other dogs as long as he has people who will love him. He would be fine with a retired couple or, because he loves them so much, with older children but we think living with younger children may be a bit too much for him now he is getting older.
FABULOUS NEWS (MAY 2017)
Toby has really fallen on all four paws. When his prospective forever home unexpectedly fell through, Christine and Michael dashed all the way down from the North East to Wiltshire to meet him and it was love at first sight.
It was the same for Tobie and his new brother Joe and they are already getting on like a house on fire. We think the recently departed Sally is watching over them approvingly and must have had a huge paw in this perfect adoption.