A dog walker had an experience that she will never forget while out walking a client's dog this week. Claire Robson, 44, was strolling along the River Tyne with one-year-old cocker spaniel Frankie, when he disappeared into a hedgerow to sniff around and returned with a rather unusual stick.
The mum-of-two initially thought Frankie had found a "rubbery pipe", but then she realised it was actually an abandoned black sex toy, and was forced to lure the pooch with treats to drop it. The playful pup paraded it around for 20 minutes and refused to hand it over, until Claire put some gloves on and finally pulled it away.
Claire, who runs Happy Tails & Trails, was forced to walk back to her van with the life-like item wobbling about in his mouth.
Hilarious snaps show the delighted pooch posing with the dildo just out of reach of a red-faced Claire.
Claire, from Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, said: "He went into the hedgerow to sniff around and he found it on the bank side.
"I thought it was a big bit of plastic rubbery pipe [he'd found] because it was bouncing around a bit.
"After about two minutes I realised it wasn't a bit of rubbery pipe. It was a sex toy, which was about 10 inches long and was quite thick as well.
"He wouldn't come near us to start with because he'd found this 'treasure' and he obviously thought it was great.
"He was having none of it so he kept running away with it, I was like 'oh god'. He was very pleased with himself. He had it in his mouth for about 20 minutes."
After taking a couple of quick photos to send to Frankie's owner, Claire managed to woo the pooch closer with a treat to get him on a lead - but was unable to get the toy off him.
They took a five-minute walk back to Claire's van where another treat and a pair of gloves helped extract it from between Frankie's teeth.
Claire said: "I couldn't get it off him so I bribed him with a treat so he'd come near us and I put him back on the lead.
"I didn't want to touch it for hygiene [reasons] so I walked with him on the lead back to the van and he jumped in his crate as usual.
"Once I'd taken the lead off I gave him a treat and he dropped it, so I quickly picked it up with a pair of gloves on and discarded it."
Claire said it was in cocker spaniels' nature to pick items up, and of all the dogs she walks if any were to pick up an unusual item - it would be him.
Claire said: "It's in their instinct to pick stuff up. When I realised what it was I was just like 'oh my God'.
"If it was any of the dogs in the pack it would have been Frankie that found it. He's a right character, he's funny as well, so if anybody was going to find it - it would be him.
"I sent her [Frankie's owner] the picture, she said she showed it to her whole office and everyone was in hysterics."
Do you have an embarrassing dog story to share? Email nia.dalton@reachplc.com.
