Spirit of the Dog - Tilly Experience

My Tilly Experience

By Jane Nettleton.

I thought it was about time I told you all about the beginnings of Tilly. Tilly is a rough coated Lurcher she was rescued from a gypsy camp in Colchester and taken to Mistly Farm Park at the age of approximately 8 weeks. She was kept there with a lot of other dogs that Mistly take on.

They re-home as many dogs as they can. Not all can be rehomed due to illness etc so they keep them as part of the family.

Tilly was the only female left in the litter she was rescued with two other male dogs.I had been looking out for a Lurcher for a while, the cross I was looking for was Greyhound Bearded collie I had seen lots of them over the years and they all had fantastic temperaments and full of tim.

Then along came a call from the RSPCA to say they had some Lurchers at Mistly of course l decided to take a look. They brought the three dogs out for me to look at. The boys were lovely very attentive and wanted to please. Tilly however wanted to hunt the bird’s sheep goats and whatever else came into vision stalking anything that moved. How could I leave her behind?

Her breeding is Greyhound Deerhound Terrier cross and she was and still is full of prey drive. She was very thin so I took her straight to the vets and was told that she had rickets and was very mal-nourished my vet wasn’t sure if her bones would be very strong and advised that the prognosis may not be that good and she was that poorly she may even die.

She was so hungry she ate snail’s worm’s insects and anything else she could find that was remotely edible, So my job was to build her up day-by-day she got stronger and stronger. Obviously she survived her ordeal and now she has been trained to do some basic obedience and heelwork to music

As with all dogs the day to day Foundation exercises are very important, if I hadn’t have stuck with them Tilly would not have made the dog she is today. If I drop them she reverts to being a confused and difficult dog. She would at any opportunity attack my other female dogs especially Crystal who had Addison’s Disease and was 5 years older than her. Tilly at times was not an easy dog to live with. Sticking to the Foundation Rules means a quiet life for us all, dropping them means all hell breaks loose in the house. Tilly was the youngest dog in my pack at the time and tried to push the older dogs around. She is now in her 9th Year and has had her fair share of tumbles and scrapes. She is now the oldest dog in my pack she still has a very strong character but she is a real sweetie and we all love her to bits.

Jane