Toffee has settled in well. Initially Sax was very suspicious of him, and rather disliked Toffee's bouncy nature. However, as time has gone on, Sax has got a lot more tolerant and they now even play together (on Sax's terms of course). Toffee and Fin are great friends.

When Toffee arrived he was a bit on the thin side and ravenously hungry all of the time. He tended to bolt his food and was very pushy when there was food around - the cause of a few tense moments between him and Sax! However, for 9 months he has been fed only in a cage using a shaped bowl designed to slow down greedy dogs. He has had no competition for food, and he has now put on a little weight and he seems to eat with a bit more care.

Soon after Toffee arrived we went on holiday to Hastings, with the Caravan and the whole family. Even though it was only April, the weather was fabulous - most unseasonal. We spent several days on beach and Toffee was introduced to the sea for the first time.  Sadly that was our last holiday with Bradley who we lost, at the age of 15 in July 2011.

Toffee's main vice is that he is very noisy! Even though some people say he looks like a Basenji - that is where the similarity stops. Toffee barks at the clouds, the wind, people that look at him, people that don't look at him, wheelie bins, doors and postmen - its all the same to him... At least he doesn't bark when he is working!!!

Scott has spent a lot of time with Toffee teaching him to play nicely and training him fun obedience exercises. He has been socialised at the dog club and has done pre-agility training, only starting proper agility training when he was old enough. He was neutered in the autumn and then his training started in earnest. Toffee still needs to be measured for agility and I think he is very borderline between Small and Medium. We will just have to see how he measures.

Unfortunately in November Toffee went lame on his front left leg. It didn't seem very serious and he was rested for a couple of weeks. However the lameness recurred and he seemed to be generally very quiet. It co-incided with some very cold weather and Toffee just seemed to want to stay inside, in the warm. 

At the beginning of December, Toffee suddenly became very unwell, with a very high temperature. He became very stiff in all his joints and was reluctant to do anything. Scott was beside himself with worry.  A visit to the vet confirmed that Toffee had a bad infection, although the source was not at all clear. He was put on a course of antiobiotics and anti-inflammatories. That seemed to sort out the fever and the lameness improved. However, he was still quite reluctant to exercise and it has taken several weeks to encourage him back into activity. 

He has also had another bout of lameness on his front leg, so that has held him back. However, he now appears to be on the mend, and whilst his illness was a bit of a mystery, we want to make sure that his leg injury is properly healed before getting back into agility training (which he has not done since November). 

We are engaging in a gentle rehabilitation exercise regime and he is getting better every day. He seems much more confident and has regained some of his "bounce" (I'd partly forgotten how annoying it is to walk around the house with a Toffee bouncing off the back of your legs!)  Scott is trying to be patient and understands that Toffee needs to be fully fit before he gets back into training, but he is enjoying teaching him tricks in the meantime and he is even having a go on the treadmill!! !
 

This page was updated on 14th January 2012