About the toller

 

The toller is the wildest thing on four legs, spontaneously put it. The common thought running through your head when you see the cute, red little dog is that they are a huggly, cuddly lap dog. You couldn’t have more wrong though.
The toller is an amazing social dog under the right circumstances. You need to make sure that the dog’s body and brain receives the correct and right amount of stimulation. The breed is very active and they can easily be bored if the owner doesn’t occupy them enough. A toller will learn both good and bad habits very quickly so it is important for the owner to not only be inventive, but also be consequent and use the ability to be both stern and extra funny when necessary. The toller is the smallest retriever breed, but don’t let the size fool you. It still needs proper stimulation.

The toller, or more correctly the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, is originates from Nova Scotia in Canada. Tolling refers to the ability to toll birds closer to the waterside and within reach of the hunter’s gun. This is a very special skill that can be trained with more breeds, but that tollers are especially good at all through its long history.

The toller arrived 1984 to Sweden through import of Ardunacres Sandy Wonderful. The race has developed steadily through the years and Sweden now has the highest population of tollers in the world, even with Canada included. Average each year is 350-400 new toller puppies.

According to us, owning a toller includes protecting the breed’s natural skills. It is originate a dog used for hunting with good retrieving skills. These skills go all the way back to the 17th century. This dog is a very all round type of dog and has had huge success in obedience, working dogs and agility. The best area for these dogs however is in hunting where the tollers really excel. To see the happiness of a toller who throws itself into water to fetch a bird is wonderful beyond words.

Many toller trainers feel insecure about training their dogs in hunting and prefer to train their dogs in other areas, but it is still important to include exercises in the dogs training that keeps the spontaneity and strong urge for retrieving. You do not need to hunt to bring forth the natural skills of these dogs.