On Toby's Terms

Plot

On Toby's Terms is an endearing story of a beguiling creature who teaches his owners that in spite of their trying to teach him how to be the dog they wanted, it was Toby who laid out the terms of being the dog he needed to be. ABOUT THE BOOK When Charmaine and her husband adopted Toby, a five-and-a-half-year-old Chesapeake Bay retriever, they figured he might need some adjusting time, but they certainly didn't count on what he'd do in the meantime. Turns out that Toby was a holy terror, beset by severe anxiety and destructive behavior that would take a miracle to curb: he routinely opened and emptied the hall closet, turned on water taps, knocked over the water cooler, pulled and ate things from the bookshelves, and spent his days rampaging through the house, knocking down everything in his path. Oddest of all was his penchant for locking himself in the bathroom, and then push the lid of the toilet tank onto the floor, smashing it to pieces. After a particularly disastrous encounter with the knife-block in the kitchen-and when the couple discovered Toby's blood and paw prints on the phone-Charmaine decided Toby needed professional help. Little did she know what they would discover about this dog.