  Last Sunday Toby went to his private training session. The verdict is that he's not an agressive dog. He did fine with all the dominant and submissive dogs they brought around him. They even brought in a wolf-hybrid dominant dog and he was fine with him. Although this dog was WAY bigger than Toby and pretty scary looking so I wouldn't wanna mess with him either! Toby does fine around socialized dogs, but not as well around non-socialized dogs which may be part of the problem with my co-workers dog at work that he gets into it with.
I also attended the first dog training session last night for an hour and a half. It was interesting, a bit hard to hear and lots of people there but good information and hand outs. Our next class is in two weeks, I get to bring Toby to that one. I'm already working on the commands with him and he's doing pretty well. The class focuses on positive reinforcement and lots of treats. Dogs are food motivated so special extra good treats motivate them to listen to you more.
It seems to be pretty effective so far. I can't wait until he's jumping through flaming hoops and twirling batons. That's probably in the advanced class though, so a few more months to go. Toby stayed at Santa Cruz Pet Resort last weekend while I was down in Santa Cruz. He seemed to love it. They let the dogs go out and roll in the dirt and jump on trampolines and do crazy stuff.
I visited him on Labor Day and he could care less that I was there so that indicated to me that he was having fun. It's very nice there with a koi pond and everything. I like to think of it as doggy overnight/day spa. It was great... oh except for the owner who's a total jerk. Last Thursday I call the place and I ask if I can bring Toby in on Sunday and pick him up on Tuesday AM. The girl says sure, but we're only open from 4-5pm on Sunday so you have to show up during that hour to drop him off.
I say great see you Sunday. I take Toby in at about 4:15 and there's no one there. There's a big CLOSED sign on the gate and a sign that says "Labor Day Weekend: Closed Sunday". Okay so that's lame. I'm po'ed at this point. Great now what do I do?
So I say screw it and go in the gate. I head through the place to the office which is wide open. No one in sight. I call out... no one there. I hang out for about 15 min talking to Chris on the phone trying to figure out what to do and a girl shows up. I tell her the story and she says, "Okay let me call the owner and see if we can take your dog".
She calls Kevin the owner up and he says okay but it's "after hours" so there's a $25 charge for it. Then he hangs up. She relays the news to me. I get upset and explain to her how it's not my fault because I was told it was okay to come today. She says, "Well you don't have to pay today so talk to the owner when you pick your dog up on Tuesday. I'll try to talk to him about it too".
On Labor Day I come to visit Toby and the girl is there and she says it's fine, she never entered the fee into the computer. I thank her for being so nice. Tuesday. I go to pick up Toby. I get there and the owner asks me when I arrived. I say Sunday and he says, "Okay well we were closed that day and usually it's a $50 after hours drop off fee but I'm just going to charge you $25 this time".
I tell him that's not okay with me because I was told it was okay to come in on Sunday and I came all the way down there with my dog. He says, "That's impossible, no one would have said Sunday because the computer couldn't take reservations for Sunday since we were closed". I say, "I didn't say I made a reservation I said I was told I could come in on Sunday". Again he says, "That's not possible". I then say, "Look... I'm not an idiot I know what I was told".
At this point I'm starting to get really po'ed at the guy. He then says, "When you got here wasn't there a sign on the gate that said CLOSED?? That's because we were CLOSED yet you still dropped your dog off so you have to pay the fee". I then reiterate to Kevin exactly how much business I'm going to be giving him in the future and how I don't feel that I was wrong in what I did since I was told it was okay to bring my dog in. Then Kevin says, "Well I can't take the fee out of the computer". OH BROTHER!
Computers are scary! I don't understand their mystical ways! You got me there Kevin, you own the joint but you can't take a price out of the computer?? PLEASE! I say nothing and finally Kevin gives and says.... "Okay I'll let the fee go this time. I'll take it out of HER paycheck instead".
I then said, "Whatever you have to do!". What a colossal jerk. He's going to take a measly $25 out of some poor college girl's paycheck. I assume he was trying to bluff me out so I wasn't gonna buy his crap but if he really does that then what a @#^$! I wouldn't go back except for the fact that it's the only good place in Santa Cruz. It's actually a nice facility and the girls that work there are very very cool.
It's just the owner that's bugs me. My friend Johnny said that maybe next time instead of taking the money out of some girl's check he could just go out back and beat one of the dogs to punish me for not paying my fee. Har har! 
