At least 20,000 new friends

Over Easter weekend Toby came with us to the Royal Easter Show at the ASB Showgrounds in Auckland. It was a chance for us to see how he would cope with a really massive crowd - and the answer is that he thought he had just found about 20,000 new best friends.

He was a real hit with the crowd, and it was fantastic to see that everyone listened when we asked them to only pat him while he was sitting as we are working on him not jumping up on people so that it is concrete for him that it is not acceptable. He was there for 3 hours, and in the end he fell asleep which made even more people come over and have a look at him.

He was a real drawcard for Outreach Therapy Pets, though we had to be really clear about what Outreach did as opposed to Perfect Partners as it was really easy for people to get confused. We also met a really lovely lady who was really interested in Toby, and when she found out Toby was from Christchurch she asked about his breeder as she is from Christchurch and looking for a dog. Hopefully she gets in touch with Arangold because the dogs are all fantastic.

Last week Toby also came to the Mount Roskill Community Library where he met about 80 people who had all come along for a special storytime and the chance to learn more about what dogs can do for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder - a great tie in for the summer holiday programme topic which is communication. After some stories and songs Toby came out and sat with his puppy raiser as she explained what he was for and what he was learning, answered some questions, and then met everyone who had lined up to say hello to Toby. He was a huge hit and he made some new friends. Marion, Danielle, and the rest of the Mount Roskill Library team were fantastic as usual, making everyone feel at home and totally supported.

Toby has also said goodbye to the team at the Blockhouse Bay vet clinic. The team has provided excellent care for Toby over the past few months - always helpful, friendly, and approachable (although Toby may have preferred not to be neutered). They took really good care of him and he is all ready to go to his family in the next few weeks. It's not the most flattering photo, but here is Lance giving Toby a treat so that we could get a picture of them together.

That's all for now. Look for some more blogging in the future as Toby moves towards living with his family permanently.