THE TALES OF LILLY, The Mud Life Dog

Trust Issues, A Squeaky Win & Her 1st Holiday

by Karen Lee Turner

If you've read the many Tales of Lilly in the past, you will know about our trials and tribulations that have come with having a Lurcher

If you haven't read about Lilly before here's a quick overview...

A Lurcher is a cross between a sighthound and a working dog, basically a dog bred to add intelligence to a fast dog. Lilly is part Whippet - the sighthound bit, therefore fast and truly loves to chase, and the other half is Staffy - the intelligent bit, so gentle, docile, and always on the lookout for fun. Put the two together you get a dog that is really fast, loves to chase things just for the fun of it, and is a total sweetheart with what can only be called 'selective' recall.

Once she zeros in on her prey - squirrels, rats or even deer - and she happens to be off the lead, she's off at double Usain Bolt speed, and goes deaf. After a couple of times when she decided to go for an extended wander through the wilderness that is Bolton's biggest park, we were both wary of letting her off the lead, but being a dog that loves to run we felt awful keeping her constantly on the lead.

After much documented ideas involving whistles, treats and a Tractive tracker Lilly is now regaining our trust, well mine really, as she's always been better at coming back for Damian - she's definitely a Daddy's girl.

I think I was helped in the process when Damian got Man Flu for nearly 2 weeks, and so every walk had to be done by me, and I think she began to understand that the only way she would get to run was if she stayed in view, and if she headed off towards her vanishing points my Mummy voice would come into play - it is loud, deep and takes no shit, and much more effective than the dog whistle!

I was also aided by finding a ball on the field. It was a tough, rubbery, tennis-sized ball and it had a squeaky - total win! Lilly likes balls but has never been a great lover of playing fetch, though she loves squeakies which made this Scooby-Doo dog ball (yes that is its name) is a game changer.

I wish I had a video of her first encounter when she spent about 5 minutes running round in big circles squeaking it constantly, then stopped only to fling it up in the air, catch it, and start the process again, but you will have to do with a quickie of her in squeak mode below.

She still doesn't bring it back, but as she's walking along she will drop it without care as she sniffs interesting pee clumps, fox poo or rotting carcasses, and that's my chance to get it back for the next chuck.

This ball means she now gets plenty of running in, even when her friends aren't out to play, and her recall is getting so much better that Damian (not me yet) has been experimenting with letting her stay off lead even through the forested bits of the park. It has taken just over a year of work, but we now have a dog who can be trusted (mostly).

Holiday Woes

I am a bit of a film and TV nut, and I also love going to conventions and dressing up (cosplaying) as characters.

'What has that to do with Lilly?' I hear you mentally mutter.

Well there is one in particular, Sci-Fi Weekender, that I have attended every year, sometimes twice a year, since I discovered it about 7 years ago. It is not a comic-con style event, it is more like a geek festival with celebrities, cosplay, comedy, music and 3 days of partying, and I mean PARTYING!

'Yes, yes, but Lilly?' - don't worry I'm getting to it.

You see it is so much fun that Damian, and my Mum come along too which caused an issue in that my Mum is my usual dog sitter, so we had no one to look after Lilly.

Trying to find someone to look after her started 3 months before the event, which was when it was finally confirmed that the dreaded Covid wouldn't put a kibosh to this one going forward. We found reputable places - they were all full, and a couple that were recommended, but found they were only dealing with current clients due to the Covid dog boom.

I then got a list of Bolton Council approved dogboarders, and started ringing round, again out of around 30 people, most were either booked up or had stopped trading. I got through to one, and she sounded promising, but after Damian and I went to meet her along with Lilly it took me less than a minute to decide that I would NEVER EVER leave my lovely dog with her!

What I imagined a dog boarder to be like, but not true in reality!

I was starting to get desperate, so starting looking at kennels rather than home boarders. I did what people say and rang a couple of vets for their recommendations, and headed off to one of them to have a look. The people were friendly, the dogs were excercised individually in a field, the kennels looked OK from the outside, but when we were taken on a tour what we saw looked like a Gulag for dogs.

It wasn't that the kennels were dirty or badly made, it was that there was no creature comforts, nothing to show that these dogs were being given more than the basics. The noise was deafening as the set up was more stables than enclosed units, so one dog set off, and all the rest did too, and Lilly does not like loud noises, so not a great situation. The final straw was the look on the faces of the dogs, it made my heart sink, so much so that we didn't even go to look at another kennel.

These are stock images, but this is basically what I saw that day at the kennels.

Next up was Rover.com, a sort of swipe right for dog walkers and boarders. People offer up their services, and homes for a fee, but the problem we found is that the people with plenty of recommendations on the site had no availability, and we later discovered after meeting one of them that 'anyone' can advertise, they do not have to have had any training or even experience with dogs; no one checks any qualifications.

The lovely lady that we met I have no doubt would have loved looking after Lilly, but had little experience, and when we discovered that she didn't drive we didn't go ahead - how would she have got Lilly to a vets if the worst happened?

Finding a dog-sitter was getting me so down that I was on the verge of not going to the event that I had been eagerly awaiting for for nearly 3 years, so I started looking for dog sitters in Great Yarmouth which is where the event is, again no luck. Lastly I thought I'd contact the holiday park we were going to to see if I could get recommendations from someone who lives in the area. I headed to their website to get the number, and spotted a small line that I'd never seen before - 'New for 2022, dog-friendly accomodation.'

It was now about 3 weeks to the event, so an email was hastily sent to see if they could organise us one of those dog-friendly caravans.

For only £65 (half of what it would have cost to board her at home), and some soothing wipes later (more on this on page 95) Lilly got to go on her first holiday with us.

Lilly in full holiday chill mode in the caravan

Afterwards Damian said that he now knows why people say "If I can't take my dog I'm not going."

Every girl needs her Daddy as a pillow

It was so successful that we have sorted another dog-friendly caravan for the next event in March.

Roll on to 2023, and another doggy adventure!