No advice about training a dog, BEG. My five have chewed up thousands of dollars of oak furniture, which is bad enough, but have also destroyed the corners of irreplaceable Sorrento inlaid wood furniture. For anyone who wonders, after going through every frikkin product on the market, I rubbed Vicks on the corners and voila, they all quit gnawing. Of course the damage was done.
I agree with most of thundley's post re dogs, although I do feel kinda embarrassed for how assholish my dogs act...and for me being such a push over. It's just that I love them almost as much as I love my kids, and Lord knows my kids did their fair share of destroying my things over the years. I rescued every one of my dogs, and all the cats, and they all endured alot to get to where they are now. Thank God my husband is so understanding, if totally exasperated.
I just spent a mini fortune at the vet last week with two of my dogs, still don't know what caused their vomiting and diarrhea (so fun to clean up), but without intensive care they would be dead. After that, I resolved to not worry as much about the drifts of hair, or the barking at strangers, or really, hell, anything except that everyone has a clean bill of health and will live to exasperate us this holiday season.
I apologize if this sounds like a self absorbed post, and I do know how irritating a badly behaved dog can be. After all, I have five living indoors with me, and it's only a 2000 square foot home which also includes the eight cats. Plus I'm on glass three of wine, and it makes me tend towards the maudlin.

I do hope you can get Toby trained, and if so, let us know how you did it. And, everyone remember, Vicks vapor rub makes an awesome chew repellent.
Also, if anyone has a clue where to get Sorrento coffee tables outside of Europe, please let me know.