watching "One Man and His Dog" on TV.
Dizzie and Ella were the first Collies to stay with me. They were Welsh Collies and as such were a bit smaller than the more usual Border Collie. Ella, who was 7 years old, was a bit nervous. She had been re-homed and had obviously had a difficult past. She didn’t like old people with walking sticks and she didn’t like loud bangs so we had to be careful if the local farmer had put any bird scarers out in the fields, as if they went off, she would stop abruptly and then turn around and start making her way back home! Sometimes we would be nearly half way round a walk and she would suddenly decide she didn’t want to carry on so would have to be cajoled in to resuming the trek. Dizzie was much younger, being only 9 months old and she lived up to her name. She was quite crazy and loved charging around and jumping up at me as we walked. She was a very happy, friendly little girl always laughing with her eyes twinkling brightly.
Ella was in charge and when it was time to feed them I had to make sure Dizzy got her share as Ella would eat her food and then try to eat Dizzy’s as well. Dizzy definitely needed to eat all her meals as she required the calories to keep her going on her crazy gallops, but sometimes she didn’t have much of an appetite so had to be encouraged to eat.
The girls came to stay with me on a regular basis and at first Ella was quite anxious and would bark a lot, but after a few months she finally grew more confident and in the end she hardly barked at all and seemed much more relaxed. Dizzy’s appetite also improved with time and she started to eat all her meals and put on a bit of weight which was gratifying.