DARTMOUTH, N.S. -- Gilly the border collie has made a lot of progress in a short amount of time.

"She's come along a long way," said Jane Godley. "She still has a ways to go, but see her in a year, and I think she'll be a very different dog than she is now."

Gilly was one of the many dogs seized from an alleged puppy mill near Wolfville, N.S., late last year.

"Originally, there was 35 dogs brought into our care, but after they were brought into our care, we had a number of mothers give birth to a number of litters -- three in fact -- and so, it ended up going to 53 dogs in our care," said the SPCA's Sandra Flemming.

It was one of the largest seizures in the history of the Nova Scotia SPCA.

"They are all in homes, we have only one left, but it's in a long-term foster home for us, and she's doing awesome and she's going to stay there a little bit longer for us and then we'll find a home for her as well," said Flemming.

Godley used to train dogs and took Gilly to evaluate her, to see if she could be adopted.

"I basically had to drag her into my house and she slept by the front door the very first night," said Godley. "I had to carry her outside. She would not come near me."

Gilly ended up finding her forever home with Jane.

"I have four dogs, (but) I'm always a foster failure," said Godley.

Bentley was one of the puppies born after the seizure. He is now a member of the Baurin family.

"A year ago, our son Ben passed away from a motor-vehicle accident," said Bruno Baurin, Bentley’s owner.

"We did a fundraising for the SPCA where a colleague of Ben's made some bracelets," Baurin said. "We've raised over $3,000 just in bracelets alone and other donations, so I think we were close to $5,000 in donations, and because of that, we were able to come one afternoon and hang out with all the puppies and we just got attached to Bentley."

Bentley quickly fit in with his family and fur siblings.

"We already had a border collie, named Archer, who was Ben's dog and the two of them have a nice friendship together," said Baurin.

"We look at it that we're giving Bentley something great, but I think Bentley's giving us a piece of the puzzle that we're missing. He gives us so much joy and we give it right back and he's been a great fit for the family and we love him lots."

For the staff at the SPCA, it’s rewarding to see the dogs thrive.

"We were really concerned about them being able to be rehabilitated, but now that they are all in homes and they are all doing well, and they're all happy and they're adjusted, it's a great reward for all the staff, because we put a lot of time and effort into these dogs," said Flemming.