The Versatile Toller

Tollers are working dogs. They are active, intelligent, and driven. Individual dogs will display variations on these characteristics, but the breed is, essentially, fast and smart. They are, fortunately, generally good-natured dogs, willing and interested in life and its various opportunities. It is important to find activities that suit your life and the needs of your toller.

In this discussion, we highlight some features of activities available for you and your toller. These descriptions are not intended to be detailed or definitive. If you are interested in any of these activities, we suggest you seek out a local group or club and explore the opportunities in your neighbourhood.

Canine Good Citizen/Canine Good Neighbour

The Canine Good Citizen test is a program put together by the American Kennel Club (AKC) as a tool for assessing dogs as members of the larger community in which they live. The test has been adopted and adapted by other kennel clubs, including the Canadian Kennel Club (CKC) where the test is called the Canine Good Neighbour. The program consists of a number (10 in the US, 12 in Canada) situations that a judge uses to evaluate the owner and dog. You can find out about the tests, including where and when they are scheduled, by checking the web site of the kennel club in your country.

Tollers do well in these tests. The toller is a happy, tolerant dog, a great addition to any home or community.

Tollers as Pets

Tollers are great pets. Many tollers enjoy children, probably because children have enough energy to keep up with the dogs! Tollers can be easy house dogs, comfortable curled up on the couch watching television and eating popcorn with you. Those selfsame beasts can fly out the door on the way to the park or beach with a word or sign.

Agility and Fly ball

Agility and fly ball are fast-paced games where the teams are composed of handlers and their dogs.

Agility is a sport where obstacles, in the form of tunnels, tires, beams, and weave poles, are set up in a course. The handler is shown the order in which the obstacles are tackled and the race is on. The handler directs the dog through the course and obstacles trying to get through the course as fast as possible without making mistakes. In some areas, a super-dog event combines equestrian trials with agility trials. Agility is fast and exciting, requiring the attention and concentration of the handler and the dog. It's an intense team sport.

Tollers are intelligent and fast; they love the challenge of agility and move like lightening through the course.

fly ball is another team sport, but it's more like a relay race, with handlers and dogs. At one end of the lane is a box with a spring-loaded ball tosser. Along the lane are jumps, the height is set by the shortest dog in the team. The dogs run the lane, jumping the obstacles, trigger the release of the ball, catch it, and race back to the handler at the start of the lane.

Tollers are excellent runners and enthusiastic retrievers. These fast little dogs love fly ball.

Obedience

Obedience trials take the basic behaviours we look for in our dogs to another level. Obedience is another team sport. The handler and dog perform a number of tests both on-lead and off-lead. Obedience has two tiers with three levels of difficulty in each. Tollers take to the training quickly and the biggest problem handlers have is keeping the dogs from getting bored! Beware the bored toller, my friend. During practice runs tollers can be quick and responsive and they can be excellent during the trials. When a toller decides they aren't interested, they can make that disinterest abundantly clear. The balance in these kinds of activities is between building a work ethic and keeping the activity fun and interesting for both the handler and the toller.

Conformation Showing

The toller breed is recognised by the CKC and that recognition includes a standard for the breed. Each organisation that recognises the breed establishes a standard against which the dogs are judged. A standard describes the physical features expected in a breed. In a conformation show, the only standard of judging is on the physical nature of the dog, the dog is not judged on its skill at any particular task. A judge who chooses from them the dog that best exemplifies the breed standard inspects dogs in the ring.

Organisations, such as the CKC, group dog breeds according to their breed function or purpose. The CKC has 7 groups of dogs of which Sporting is one. The tollers are considered sporting dogs because they are hunting dogs.

In conformation, the dogs are inspected in categories within the breed first. The best of each category then compete against each other. Finally, the best dog is declared Best of Breed (BOB). The BOBs from each breed in a group then competes against each other for the Best in Group. Finally, these dogs compete against each other for the Best in Show.

Showing a toller in conformation is, in some ways, a lot less strenuous than any other activity. In general, the people showing tollers tend to be a welcoming and fun-loving bunch, helpful and informative. They also throw great parties.

Hunters and Field Dogs

Tollers were bred, relatively recently, as duck hunting dogs. The tolling part of their nature is useful for drawing ducks into range. Tollers love retrieving. Even if you don't plan to hunt with your toller, you can exercise this part of their nature by participating in hunting test and field trials. Again, there is a team element to these activities. The handler and dog are given a number of retrieval situations using dead ducks and birds. The dog is expected to retrieve the birds with minimal intervention from the handler. In these tests, the toller has to be comfortable working around gunfire and at a distance from the handler (the more senior the test, the greater the distance).

Other Activities

Tollers are in use as therapy and assistance dogs and in search and rescue. There are a number of areas and activities not covered in this discussion that are out there to be explored. Tollers are flexible, intelligent, and active dogs. They are happy to engage in activities that stretch their abilities and challenge them. Go forth, and enjoy.

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