Family Dogs - Tonia, Todd, Maggie and Oliver

Oliver attacks Maggie full on. Maggie, a French Briard, is a good sport about it. She's about four times bigger than Oliver, who's a Lhasa Apso/Terrier cross, so she bows down to give him a fighting chance. Pretty soon they are two jumbles of fur rolling on the ground. It's like watching two shag carpets wrestling. You can tell they're having fun because hair's flying all over the place.

Tonia, Director of Communications at Second Harvest, got Oliver from Toronto Animal Services South two and a half years ago when he was just over a year old. Someone had sent her a photo of Oliver in his kennel and she went down to TAS and immediately decided to take him home.

"We adopted Oliver because I met him and felt an instant connection to him," Tonia says. "Todd [Tonia's husband, a trader in capital markets for RBC] and I had talked about getting another dog before that, but it wasn’t a serious conversation. I did just bring Oliver home and when we saw that he was good with cats and Maggie approved, we knew he would be staying. He just fit with our family really well, pretty much instantly. I didn’t have to do much convincing of Todd – he loves animals almost as much as I do. And it really wasn’t much of a difference going from one dog to two dogs, in terms of workload. Oliver adjusted to our schedule really quickly. He responds well to structure."

I ask Tonia if there's a hierarchy amongst all the animals.

"[Oliver and Maggie] are both pretty easy going. Maggie is definitely the leader though, as the older first ‘kid’ she definitely showed Oliver the ropes. He really just follows her around. He loves his big sis! Oliver is definitely more protective of our home, but overall Maggie calls the shots.

"Oliver really gets along with the cats, playing, bathing and interacting with them. Maggie really isn’t interested in cats, never has been. She doesn’t mind them but she would never play with them."

I sit down on the floor with Oliver and Maggie and immediately Maggie comes over and gives me a face wash with her tongue. Coming from my own house with two dogs who don't kiss unless there's peanut butter smeared on you, this comes a bit of a surprise. I lean over to say hello to Oliver and I get the same treatment from him.

When I take photos of a dog, I make high pitched noises or snap my fingers or bribe with treats to try to get the dog to look in the camera. Often there are other distractions competing for the dog's attention. In Oliver's case, it's Tonia. He can't seem to take his eyes off her. I ask her about that and she tells me she's been taking him to agility classes. That's where dogs are trained to run an obstacle course with tunnels, A-frames, seesaws and an assortment of other props which keep the dog's mind sharp and body healthy. She says that one of the other benefits of the agility training is that Oliver has become very focused on her.

I make a clicky noise with my tongue and Oliver gives me a half second glance and then focuses right back on Tonia.

Tonia laughs. "He's kind of obsessed with me," she says.

Maggie, Tonia and Todd's first dog, was purchased from a breeder. But, Tonia tells me "even though we absolutely love Maggie (and know that our breeder is responsible) we would never go to a breeder again just because the shelter is a goldmine of wonderful companions. It just doesn’t make sense to me to encourage increased population when there are so many incredible dogs waiting in shelters for a good home."