What you see in this picture are Toby the Puppy — he’s the one in the Superman shirt — and his newest best friend, Dolly.

I want to highlight this new friendship to illustrate how sociable Toby the Puppy can be, and how others of his, um, species relate to his sociability.

Dolly is a member of the Ed and Colleen Loos family in their home in the Phoenix, Ariz., suburbs. We visited the family and got acquainted immediately with Dolly, who took a few moments to, shall we say, sniff her way into Puppy’s good graces.

She nipped at him a couple of times as Toby got a little too familiar. But then? It was all good.

The two of them pranced around the house together. One would follow the other one. They chased each other around the back yard. They shared water bowls, Dolly even let Toby the Puppy eat some of her food.

We never worry about Toby the Puppy’s interaction with others of his type. He is among the most sociable beings we’ve ever encountered.

The best news is that he found another pooch who shares his desire to get acquainted.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Toby the Puppy’s body-language “vocabulary” is expanding. I want to report briefly on a way he communicates to his Mommy and me and how we learned quickly to understand the message he was delivering.

When we want to take him for one of his twice-daily walks — yes, we’re on a schedule to take him twice each day through the neighborhood — we know he is ready to go … when we ask if he’s “ready” and he grabs the nearest toy and shakes it vigorously.

There you go. He tells us he’s good to go for a walk by grabbing a toy — preferably a squeaker, of which he has plenty laying around the house — and biting it so it makes noise and then shaking the daylights out of it.

It’s a fairly remarkable way of communicating, if you want my humble opinion on it. Well, whether you want my opinion or not, you have it. So there.

It’s just one more aspect of puppy parenthood that has made my bride and me laugh every single day since Toby the Puppy came into our lives.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It’s been far too long since I have bragged about Toby the Puppy.

So … here comes another tidbit about our smart puppy. He has learned to virtually dress himself. Yep, that’s right. Here’s what I mean.

We like putting shirts and/or sweaters on him during these cold snaps. His fur is light and he is a bit prone to the shivers when the temperature drops too significantly.

What do we do? We fetch his sweater, slip it over his head and one front leg at a time, he lifts the leg so we can slip it through the opening in his garment; we do the same thing with the other front leg.

There you go.

It wasn’t all that long ago that we had to struggle to get Toby to cooperate with us as we sought to keep him warm from the cold weather. Those of us who have raised children know what I’m talking about. If a kid doesn’t want to wear something, it’s a serious chore getting him or her to comply. Same can be said about puppies.

Toby the Puppy was one of those problem “children.” Until now.

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We are getting close to taking our final RV trip of the year. We won’t go far from the house, only about 50 miles to a state park at Lake Tawakoni.

We’ll bring it home and then winterize it, send it into hibernation.

I just wanted to salute the most notable road warrior in our family. That would be Toby the Puppy.

I hear occasionally from friends and some family members about their pooches getting “car sick.” Toby the Puppy? Hah! He is happy to ride anywhere, at anytime, for any length of time, any distance. No matter what!

Toby has a iron constitution as well. He will let us know he has to relieve himself. How does he do that? By getting out of bed, jumping into the lap of the person in the passenger’s seat in the truck and scratching at our arm. Then we know. Time to stop.

Mostly, though, he just snoozes between us.

I want to offer this good word for all you potential pooch parents who might worry about how your puppy travels, whether he or she gets motion sickness while riding in your vehicle. I am proud to say that Toby the Puppy, the pooch we proclaim to be the No. 1 puppy of all time, is the ultimate road warrior.

Yours can fit that description too.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Toby the Puppy cannot speak English, at least as I understand the language. He does, however, “speak” in a unique way that I have learned to comprehend.

He answers “yes” to questions by doing something in the moment that he does not do any other time.

“Are you hungry?” I might ask. “Do you want to go for a walk?” “Do you want to ride in the truck?” “Do you want to go see Emma?”

If the answer is “yes” to any or all of those queries — which almost always is the case — he responds by grabbing one his many chew toys that he has thrown around every room in our house.

He then shakes the toy. He throws it in the air. He growls at whatever toy he grabs. He might even bark at it.

That is how Toby the Puppy communicates his agreement with whatever question my bride and I would pose to him.

Oh, how do I know when he says “no”? No sweat. He doesn’t do anything. He might offer us a hang-dog look. What question produces something akin to a negative response? “Do you want to take bath?” He doesn’t fight the bath, but clearly it isn’t among his favorite things to do.

He joined our family more than seven years ago. We learn more about him almost daily. I am quite certain Toby the Puppy has his Mommy and me figured out.

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Toby the Puppy is going to celebrate a birthday. He turns 7 years of age, which means — and this is my fervent hope — that we’ll enjoy his company for a whole lot longer.

We celebrate his birthday on April Fool’s Day.

He joined our family over the Labor Day Weekend of 2014. Our niece was visiting us from the Pacific Northwest. She found him curled up in an alley near our home in Amarillo. He was scared, she said, so he followed her back to our home.

We had intended to take him to an SPCA shelter, but they were closed that weekend. Well, the rest became history in a hurry. He grabbed our hearts, held them close his own in that way that puppies are able to do. We were hooked.

So, after deciding he would join our family, we took Toby to the doctor’s office for his vaccinations, to get an electronic chip installed in his shoulder, to get him — ummm — neutered. First question we asked of the veterinarian: How old is he?

I’ll never forget what she did and said. She looked into his mouth and without flinching she said, “He’s 5 months old.” Period. Full stop. Yada, yada …

That was in early September. We backed up our calendar for five months and discovered — lo and behold! — that five months earlier put his estimated date of birth in early April.

There you have it. The “joke” was on my bride and me. Toby the Puppy had a new home. We had a new member of our family. He has been an utter joy since that day when our niece found him in that alley.

He will have a wonderful birthday.