They say never give up on your dreams and for Hungarian Vizsla Boris Barcutan, he never did.
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Nor did his owner.
"I've been trying to get Boris on TV all his life," said owner Rosalind Walker who together with her partner Mike runs Wingham Pet Motel and Spa.
Now ten years old and terminally ill, Boris's star potential has finally been realised.
This year, of all years, he got a call back from an audition and will soon star in a TV commercial for a well known pet brand.
"I can't tell you what the product is yet," said Ros apologetically.
"We're not allowed to say."
The commercial will air on channels nine, seven and ten in the next few weeks and Ros and Mike aren't the only local pet owners who will be tuning in.
Five guests of the Wingham Pet Motel - Van, Charlie, Sonny, Abbey and Lana - were also chosen to spend the day filming at Sydney's Bilgola Plateau.
"They (the producers) started to realise we had quite a lot of dogs here, " said Ros.
The requests were quite specific.
"They asked if we knew a three legged dog and even if we knew a dachshund on wheels," she said.
"And we did."
Ros was able to send in audition tapes featuring 15 dogs, with six, including Boris, making the cut.
"The movie industry is very ageist," said Ros.
"Boris is older now and I didn't know if he would make it."
Ros even had to disguise Boris's sarcoma lump to land the role and a few days before filming he came off his chemotherapy treatment.
Boris was diagnosed in July with chondrosarcoma, a rare form of cancer which usually begins in the bones.
Rosalind knew something wasn't right back in January but his condition proved to be difficult to diagnose and by July it was too late to operate.
Luckily, despite a grueling day of filming Ros is quite certain Boris loved every minute of the adventure.
Movie making is notoriously high stress and with six dogs to coordinate it was particularly so for Rosalind and her assistant.
However the dogs took it all in their stride even though not everything went to plan.
"The whole thing was such a mission," admits Ros.
For starters there's the difficulty of getting six dogs safely and comfortably to Sydney as well as finding an Airbnb to accommodate everyone.
Throw in a grueling filming schedule, inexperienced pets that have to perform on cue and of course a COVID-19 pandemic.
Oh and one of the dogs had since moved to Berry.
At least Boris got to rehearse his role beforehand.
"It all got changed at the last minute," said Ros.
"We had to just roll with it."
The six country pooches were working alongside more experienced industry professionals.
It seems many of the other dogs on set were trained movie dogs.
"Our guys held their own," said Ros.
"I'm so proud of them."
Ros believes the main reason the local dogs were chosen was because they had all been socialised early and are confident dogs.
"They could handle it," she said.
Ros said she was grateful to the owners who let her take their dogs for what turned out to be a three day trip.
She's also incredibly grateful that Boris finally got to have his day.
Our guys held their own
- Ros Walker
The pair have worked hard over the years with Ros training Boris with a clicker using a training method known as shaping.
He has quite a few tricks up his paws and has been waiting for just the right moment to show them off.
"It's just amazing luck that Boris got to make my wish come true in his final months," added Ros.