The Swiss are known for having a refined taste for the finer things in life, particularly chocolate. It goes without saying that they have a lot of Tollers, and we were lucky enough to meet the very first one who had the good sense to move to Switzerland:
Red Toller's Emotion In Red, The First Toller in Switzerland
Emotion lives in one of the standard-issue postcard-type valleys in the French speaking part of Switzerland (a country with four official languages, none of which is English). She lives with two other tollers, Kanadickens Felicia and Flottatjaern's Prima Indaaji, seen here on a picnic table they seem to spend a lot of time posing on:
Emotion, Felicia, and Indaaji, SITTING STILL!
These three tollers live with Elsbeth and Ueli Wittwer. We would show you a picture of them but we forgot to take pictures of anything other than the dogs and the view. Here is a picture of their house instead:
And here is a picture of their view:
Elsbeth, as if three Tollers wasn't enough dog for one household, also has a huge dog known in German as a Mishling, or "Mixed up" breed. Furthermore, they run a Pension for dogs, bording about half a dozen when we were there. Their living room is sensibly equipped with a huge wrap around sofa (room for 6 or 7 dogs), and an assortment of dog beds, pillows, etc. All the borders get to sleep indoors with the family. You see, the Swiss are known for their hospitality to tourists of all species: Dogs are not only allowed in restaurants, restaurants and other public places have dog food stands outside, sponsored by dog food companies. They have installations to handle the other end of the dog as well:
This kind of treatment pays off. All Elsbeth's Tollers seemed to be extrodinarily kind and sociable, even to people who have been known at times to not like dogs (yes, these people exist, and are even related to people involved in the Toller community). Here is a picture of a very sweet toller, Felicia, with her head in the lap of someone who ordinarily does not encourage this sort of thing:
John, Eva, and Addison Gray with three tollers
Felicia is still getting over her litter of four puppies. The last one has just moved away, so she is a little depressed. The person holding the exceptionally cute baby is not Elsbeth. Elsbeth is the person on the far left. The one whose arm you can see.
Elsbeth is the editor of the Swiss Toller Club newsletter, Toller-INFO. It contains articles in both German and French, and often lists "Toller Walks", where Toller owners get together to hike in the mountains with their dogs. Unfortunately there were none on while we were there, but this seems like a great idea. If we had mountains (and Tollers) in this area, we would love to have Toller Walks too. (This reminds me of a great question from a relative. He asked, pointing to one, "In America, what do you call the small houses up in the mountains where they look after the cows in the summer and make cheese?" Um, well, um, we don't actually have any of those....)
Toller-INFO contains advertising from dog food companies, which pays for things like a color cover. Here is a recent example:
As you can see, Swiss Tollers travel in style.
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