This blog is Moving!!

Hi Everyone!
It's been a while since I've updated this blog for Toby. He's had quite a few adventures while I've been slacking in my writing! I'll be posting some more pictures and updates very soon. BUT, they won't be here! :) I've decided to move everything into one blog.

We've had two blogs going for a while now: Toby's blog and our Pelletier Family Blog. I suppose since we've had Toby for more than 5 months, he's officially a member of our family. So, I'm going to just keep all of our updates (including those about our precious Toby) on our Family Blog. :) You are all welcome to check it out. We've marked it as private because we don't want any internet freaks studying up on everything our family has going on.

So, if you're still interested in checking in on us and seeing what's going on with me, Craig, Toby and the baby-on-the-way, feel free to let us know. Just shoot one of us an e-mail and we can send you an invitation to view the Pelletier Family Blog. It's super easy for us to do - we just want to make sure the people who are viewing the updates about our family are people we know! :)

Here's our e-mail contacts - any of them will reach us:
amymesko1@hotmail.com
amypelletier@aw-nc.com
craigpelletier@hotmail.com

The site for the Pelletier Family blog is: pelletierfamilync.blogspot.com
or you can just select the link on the left side of this page.

Hope you'll be contacting us soon! :)

Scoping out the neighborhood.

This is just a cute picture I took of Toby the other day and I thought I'd share it! :) It was really quite in the house and I started roaming around looking for Toby. There he was at the front door just watching the neighborhood. Occasionally someone would pass by jogging or walking their dog and he would watch them with full interest. He didn't really bark or whimper at all...until the neighbors started hanging out on their driveway. He really likes seeing the neighbors...especially Madeleine.

Another old video...of Toby's evil twin! (not really)

Here's another video of Toby. This was actually one of the "bloopers" from when I was trying to film the other video I just posted. But, this one makes me laugh out-loud every time I watch it! This video proves that Toby is in fact a curious puppy and he wants to use his teeth for EVERYTHING! He's so darn cute, isn't he? I just think it's so funny how he's looking right at the camera at the end! :)

Here's an old video of Toby playing with one of his toys...

I have been meaning to upload this video a long time ago, but I kept forgetting! Sorry!! I think this video is absolutely adorable. One day after work, I was watching Toby play with his toys all by himself and I just had to record it - it's only about a minute and a half long. He's playing with a little squeaky toy he got from his "Aunt" Kim and "Cousin" Belle. He's already torn up most of the toys that came in that care-package, but at this time, they were still in tact. He's just so cute and playful! :)

I learned two things already today...

1) Toby is really not a tiny little puppy anymore, and
2) I am PATHETIC!!!

Today, I had to drop Toby off to be neutered. He's having the procedure today, he'll stay the night tonight, and tomorrow morning I'll pick him up after my doctor's appointment. The first thing we do when we go to the vet is have him weighed. The last time we were in there was less than 2 months ago and they said he only weighed 5.5 lbs. I thought that was a little light, since the time before that he weighted 4.6 lbs - and he definitely got bigger between visits. I think he was squirming around a lot on the scale so they didn't get a good reading, but they documented 5.5 lbs on his chart. Well, today when I got him on the weigh table she said he weighed 9.5 lbs!!!! Whoa!! Either Toby is getting fat (which I know he's not), or they weighed him wrong last time (very possible), or he had a major growth spurt these past few weeks (which is also very possible). He already out weighs his mother, who was about 7.5 lbs. His father was 11 lbs. So, Toby may be leveling out on his weight...or he'll be a heavy Havanese! :) Either way, he's still adorable.

I realized I'm pathetic because I cried when I left Toby at the vet. I'd love to use the excuse that I"m hormonal, but I think I'm just a big sap for this dog! :) It just upset me knowing they were going to have to put him under and when he woke up he'd be stuck in the Vet office in a crate overnight all alone until I can pick him up in the morning. He was in such a good mood last night and this morning, it broke my heart knowing what I was dropping him off to go through. :( When we got to the vet's office, he was sitting on my lap like such a good dog. When the vet's assistant came and took him he looked so calm, but a little uneasy. I just hope they're good to him today, tonight and tomorrow. He'll probably cry - good thing I won't be hearing that. :(

Yes...I am pathetic!!!

Do dogs have nightmares?

I am so tired this morning because of our crybaby dog! We're still not quite sure what his problem was, but he was a mess last night! He was a little difficult to put down to bed last night so we had to put his crate in the laundry room so he could cry himself to sleep and WE could get some sleep.

Then at around 4:00AM he just started WAILING and BARKING and CRYING like nothing else! After about 20 minutes of non-stop crying I thought something must be wrong - I thought maybe he got his paw caught in his crate or something. Craig went to check him out and let him out of his crate for a few minutes. He was a spazz! He was so excited to see Craig! Then when he saw me, he had the same reaction!

Something must have really spooked him last night and he was in a panic. I know he dreams because we've seen and heard his cute running and barking in his sleep, but do dogs have nightmares? I wish he could talk so we could figure out what was wrong with him.

We put his crate outside our bedroom so he could calm down and go back to sleep. It took him forever to stop whimpering and "digging" at his bed. This morning he was a little clingy, but other than that he was perfectly fine. It's just us who will be tired and crabby all day! I guess we should just consider all of this good practice. :)

Tomorrow he gets taken to the vet to get neutered. He has to stay the night there and we'll pick him up Thursday morning. I feel bad having him stay the night in the strange vet office all night long in a cage. He'll probably cry all night long. Heck, if he had nightmares last night, who KNOWS what kind of dreams he'll have in the next few nights after he gets the "snip snip"! :( Poor Toby.

It's been a while...

There hasn't been much new to post on Toby's blog lately. I should just take some pictures of him and post them anyway to see how much he's grown. He's really starting to be full of personality! Here's a picture of Toby's new cousin, Abby (see below for more!).

Toby graduated from his Puppy Class a few weeks ago. He did such a great job! We've not been the best at practicing with him since the class ended, but we need to. He's signed up for the second class: Puppy Confidence and Agility. They say a lot of puppies go through an awkward phase when thing that normally didn't bother them can start to frighten them. It comes along with adolescence. This class should help him with that if it causes him to regress. Plus, it's another chance for him to have "play time" with other puppies his age. By the end of his last class, he was so excited each week to see his "friends". It's really helped him interact with other dogs we may see on walks or at our friend's house (you should've seen him playing with his friend Abbey this last weekend!! They ran around Jon and Jen's backyard for a LONG time just playing with each other...then Toby slept for the rest of the day! ha ha!)

Toby has also lost almost all of his baby teeth! I've only seen one of them, so I'm sure he swallowed the rest of them. :) He gets in a cranky mood when he's got teeth bothering him and he seems like a different dog when the loose tooth falls out. We're hoping once he's done teething he'll stop biting, but so far, it's not getting any better.

He's also got an appointment to get <*gasp*> neutered!! :( Poor little guy. He goes in next week for the ol' snip snip. This may also help contain some of his hyper behaviors, such as his mouthing, humping and general spazziness! :) I'm a little scared to have this done just because there's always a risk with any kind of surgery. But, we know it's what needs to get done because we don't want him humping and marking everything in sight. Plus, it will keep any future aggression to a minimum when he's older (so they say).

Toby's got a new cousin now! This picture is of Abby and Mom. I suppose, technically we should call Abby Toby's Aunt, but we'll stick to using the term "cousin" since they're both babies! :) Abby is a mixed breed puppy - Shiz Tzu, Maltese and Yorkie. Isn't she cute? She is about 9 weeks now (the picture was from a couple weeks ago) and she weights 3.2lbs. Toby was 3.5lbs when we got him at 11 weeks, so they're both growing about the same rate. It will be so much fun to see the two of them playing together since they're both black & white and fluffy puppies! They're going to be able to meet next month. Mom and Dad are driving down to see us the week before we ALL go down to Savannah to welcome home Captain Matt Mesko from Iraq!! Then there will be THREE dogs sniffing each others' butts! ha ha!!!

I'll take some more pictures of Toby and get them posted. Oh! Adam took a super cute picture of him when he was visiting. I'll have to post that one - Adam's a great photographer.

A new favorite "Toy"

I think one of Toby's favorite past-times is to annoy me while I'm doing laundry. He LOVES that. If I'm at the washer and dryer he's trying to jump inside the dryer to get to the clothes or anxiously waits for me to drop an article of clothing. If I have a laundry basket on the floor or on the couch, he'll make every effort to grab a sock or a pair of underwear and run off with it. He's even pulled items through the small holes in the side of the hamper when he can't get to the top of it! I suppose we should've seen this coming because there was a good couple week stretch when if we were looking for Toby we'd often find him in the closet of our bedroom sitting on a pile of dirty laundry or (hilarious) inside a laundry basket of laundry! ha ha! :)

So, one day when he was again annoying me while I was trying to fold laundry, he ran off with a plastic hanger. This time I just let him have it...at least it wasn't a pair of underwear! Now he "plays" with that hanger all the time! He'll sit there and gnaw on it sometimes, other times he'll get himself tangled up in it and roll around and around while chewing on it, and the funniest is when he playfully nips at it, backs away, barks at it and then runs around in one of his "zoomies" circles! Plus I'm sure it helps soothe his tender gums while he's teething (he's lost a lot of his baby teeth and has adult teeth coming in all the time - odd that we still haven't seen a single tooth laying around - hmmm.)

We don't let him have it while we're gone, but it's a great distraction tool that helps me get the laundry done! :)

Toby's "First" Haircut

Okay, so it's not really his FIRST haircut, since he had one while he was still living with the breeder, but it's his first haircut since we've owned him. I had a hard time finding a Groomer who was familiar with Havanese dogs. The one we ended up taking him to actually grooms a lot of Havanese, and have for years. Apparently, there's a guy in town who has Havanese show dogs and he brings all his dogs into this groomer. That made mre more comfortable leaving him there for the day. Boy, was he happy when I picked him up! :)

He was WAY overdue for one, too. The Before picture I have here doesn't really show how insanely fluffy he was before his haircut. It was cute, but it looked a little scruffy and he always seemed hot - plus the hair in front of his eyes I'm sure was annoying. He's super soft now and his hair is much shorter. It's almost too short for my liking, but Toby seems to love it. He's got a new world of energy, probably because he's a lot cooler (we've been dealing with a major heat wave lately!). I like being able to see his face better - his eyes are so cute when you can see them! :)

Bang!

I don't have a picture of this - yet - but Toby has learned the trick "Bang!" (aka, "Play Dead" for those who didn't know Mindy well). It's taken us a while to get him to pick up on it. He didn't like being "shoved" to lay on his side - he kept nipping at Craig when he was helping him. We were trying to teach it to him for Show-And-Tell at his puppy class, but he didn't get it in time...granted, we didn't try very hard to train him because time was an issue.

We gave up for a little while because we could tell he was getting frustrated. Then a few days later we were trainig with him again and I thought I'd try once again. I made the "gun" with my hand, said "BANG!" and waited...and waited...and waited. Toby sat there staring at me - staring at the "gun" - and then, ever so slowly, he rolled onto his side with his head down and his legs straight out! Craig and I both went crazy shouting "GOOD BOY!!", showering him with affection and giving him treats. You could tell he was really proud of himself. :)

He's not really confident with it just yet, but he's getting there. It's SO CUTE when he does it. We'll have to work on it more now that he knows what the command means. Sure, it takes him a while, and you can almost see the gears turning while he's thinking about what to do, but he did it! Not bad for a puppy who's not even 5 months old!! Way to go, Toby! :)

Cookies!

Toby has so many toys now and he loves them all! He has so many family members who love him and send him toys and treats! His latest carepackage came from his Aunt Caroline & Cousin Marvin. :)

There was a rope toy shaped like an animal - he chews on it a lot and it already looks years old. There was also a really goofy looking monkey toy with a huge body and little legs and arms ("I have a big head and little arms"...ha ha ha...inside joke...). It took him a while to figure out there was a squeaker inside because the body was like a small pillow. Once he figured out it had a squeeker he played with it a lot more...then he chewed off one of his legs! ha ha!! Now there's a monkey leg that keeps moving around the house; I don't know why it makes me laugh so hard, but it does.
In the carepackage he also got a box of doggie treats that look AND SMELL like chocolate chip cookies! Seriously, they smell good enough to eat! I gave one to Toby and he loved it. I know it's rude to photograph someone when they're eating, but he just looked so funny breaking up the cookie into small pieces and hunching over to eat it. ha ha! :)

Craig's Paris Hilton Dog

When unpacking from out Memorial Day Weekend trip, Toby kept sniffing at our bags. Finally, Craig decided to try and put Toby inside one of the bags. At first he kept trying to hop out. But, once Craig had the bag up on his shoulder, I think Toby realized jumping from that high wouldn't be the best decision, so he just went along for the ride! I'm sure at some point we'll have to buy a carrier bag for him in case we need to take him on the plane for a vacation sometime! :)

Happy (Belated) Memorial Day!

We had a great Memorial Day Weekend with Courtney and Chris! We all went down to Chris's place, south of Raleigh, and spent the weekend hanging out on his boat, playing games, eating, drinking and just hanging out. Chris has a house in a neighborhood that has a private lake! Very Cool! The water was refreshing since the air temperature was warm.

We brought Toby with us and he went for his first boat ride! He even went swimming - not willingly, though! I think he was happy to be cooled off from baking in the sun, but he wasn't the biggest fan of the water. We put him in a few times off the back of the boat and he would immediately turn around and swim back and try to get back in the water! Once, Craig even tossed him in the water and he went completely under! That was all on the first day!

The second day, Toby loved the wind blowing in his face while Chris drove the boat really fast, but he found himself a shady spot and just snoozed while the rest of us chilled and swam. No swimming for Toby on the second day! He was tuckered out after that! He slept on my lap the whole drive back to Wake Forest!

I have lots more pictures, but I'll try to get them set up on a slide show at another time. In the meantime, here's a sample of our fun weekend! Thanks to Chris and Courtney for being excellent hosts! We had a great time! :)

A+ for the First Day

This weekend was Toby's first day at school! There were 9 puppies in the class, most of which were pretty large mixed breed dogs! There were two other smaller dogs there: a Minature Schnauzer and a Westie - and they were both quite high-strung! Toby was so calm when he "met" all the other puppies. He almost seemed a little scared, but he was still interested. He's met lots of other dogs, large and small, around the neighborhood, but he's only met them one or two at a time. Meeting 8 other puppies at once was maybe a little intimidating. He was so well behaved! Here's a picture of him "meeting" some of the other puppies. The beginning of the class was spent just letting the dogs get to know each other. What a bunch of cuties!

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Toby got an A+ from the instructor for a couple things! He was one of the calmer dogs in the class, and surprisingly, he wasn't easily distracted by all the other puppies. Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of other very smart dogs there, but I'm biased! Craig and I were so proud of him. He did a perfect "Sit" and "Down" for the instructor, and at any time I asked him to by himself. Craig said he looked really cute when we were practicing the "Heel" command - he said Toby looked like a little show dog prancing next to me and looking up at me for his treat! :) He does the "Stay" command really well, but we were teaching him a little ahead of what they wanted us to. We were jumping right into "Come" after he says, but they want him to just be able to say and have us walk around him and see if he stays on his own without waiting for the "Come" command. So, we have to work on that.

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The clicker training is REALLY working for Toby! It's amazing! He really understands that CLICK = TREAT and because of that we can make him learn almost anything! We'll keep you posted on his progress. We're just so proud of him right now. He slept good last night after all that hard work! :)

Toby misses Adam :(

This post is a little overdue, but better late than never. Toby got so much attention while Adam was visiting! He was definitely going through withdrawl the first few days after he left. Adam and Craig were up late a couple nights, and often didn't put Toby in his crate until the wee hours of the morning. He slept, but it was either on one of their laps, on the chair or on the couch with one of them. The first few nights after Adam left, we put Toby in his crate at night just like we usually do. He whimpered and cried quite a bit the first couple nights. He hasn't done that since the first week we had him!! He's better now, but it took a while.

Adam also taught Toby how to dance! Check out the video below! :) (notice the beer never leaves Adam's hand!)

Here's Proof!!

We were wondering if Toby was still small enough to sneak out of the kitchen through the small gap under the kitchen cabinets. Well, here's proof that he's still a skilled escape artist! :)

"Down"

Toby FINALLY learned the "Down" command last night! We were so excited and proud (and a little pathetic!).

We started teaching him commands right away when we got him. He learned "Sit", "Stay" and "Come" pretty well, but he was always bad at "Down" so we gave up for a while. I remember Mindy never really got that command, so I started thinking maybe little dogs just don't do well at it. But, yesterday, Craig and I took some time to try and teach him together and WOW! he actually did it! Way to go, Toby!! :)

...then this morning he was a total spaz (ugh!), so we'll see if he will still be able to do it tonight... :)

Drowned Rat!

Toby has finally had his first bath with us! Actually, Sunday was a Toby Spa Day! :) We clipped the fur around the pads of his feet, brushed him, removed another tick (yuck!), cleaned out his ears and clipped his nails...but the highlight was his bath! It's amazing how tiny he looks when his fluffy hair is all wet! Amazingly, he did VERY well for his bath. Of course he tried to get out of the tub a couple times, but after a couple attempts, he learned it was useless. I even used the blowdryer to get him dry as quick as possible. Actually, the blow dry experience was the worst for him. He was shaking like crazy! I just held him on my lap while I dried him off. After a couple minutes he stopped shaking. He kept burying his head in the bend of my elbow to "hide". It all went well, and we now have a clean, soft, fluffy, and happy puppy again! :)

More Milestones!

(this was from 4/25 - for some reason it didn't post...)

Toby has had so many more milestones, I wish I had more pictures to show for them! I did get the camera out to catch him climbing up the stairs, though. Those pictures are from a few days ago when he figured out how to get UP the stairs, but was too scared to come DOWN the stairs! :)

Just last night, Craig noticed that Toby was up on the second floor peering down at us through the stair railings (so cute...I wish I had the camera close by!). After about 10 minutes he started whimpering to come back down. I started up after him, but Craig said to wait and see if he could figure it out on his own. He kept whimpering, but the whimpers got closer and closer to the main level as the minutes passed. He had made it half way down the stairs all by himself! So, I stayed at the bottom and coaxed him the rest of the way. Way to go, Toby!! Now, if he'll just get the nerve to go down stairs made of wood or brick...

Here are some more milestones:

1) He has discovered his bark! He started barking a little when Craig's parents were here. Usually he barks when he's playing by himself with his toys or his blanket, and it's really cute. Sometimes he barks to get our attention, but if we're eating, we quickly put a stop to that. I hope he learns to bark when he wants to go outside...he hasn't quite figured that out yet.

2) He finally figured out how to make his toys squeak on his own. That also happened while Craig's parents were in town. It's like he has a whole new batch of toys now!

3) He discovered his reflection in the window of the living room. That one was funny! I went to bed a little early one night and Craig was watching Toby. Then he just started barking and barking - which was very strange for him. Craig wasn't stopping him, instead, he was laughing! I walked out into the living room and saw him on the arm of the couch staring at the back window. He likes that perch now...especially at night when his reflection is the clearest.

4) He had to get 4 shots and a microchip implanted this last Saturday. Poor Toby. He took them all like a champ, including the huge needle that needed to put in the microchip. But, one of the shots must have really burned because he was just wailing after he got it! :( So, now he's up-to-date on all his vaccinations and he's all ready to start school!!! And, with the microchip, if he ever wanders off and ends up at a shelter, they can scan him and contact us so we can get him back. :)

5) Last night, Craig learned that Toby LOVES riding in the back of his convertible when the top is down. I was having dinner with Courtney, so Craig decided to have a "guy's night out" and took Toby to eat outside at a local Irish/Sports Bar. Toby made all kinds of friends! :)

Crate training is not easy...

We've read that Crate Training is a wonderful thing for a dog, and we
wanted to give it a try. So far, Toby has been great sleeping in his crate
at night, but that's because it's in our bedroom and he's close to us.
Plus, we keep his crate elevated so we have to put him in it at night and
take him out of it. But, during the day, the crate is kept in the Kitchen
so he can have access to his "bed" any time he wants. Until this weekend,
we doubted he ever put his paws in his crate when he wasn't sleeping
because we'd never seen him do it. With all the commotion in the kitchen
with Craig's parents in town, Toby finally realized that his crate is a
"safe place" for him. I was so proud to see him in there that I couldn't
help but take a picture (I know, I'm pathetic)! And, for the remainder of
the weekend, every time we couldn't find Toby, there he was, peaceful in
his crate. What an accomplishment! :) I hope he continues to use it -
we'll need him comfortable in it if we ever travel with him.

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