A FOUR-LEGGED trouper from Barrow will strut his stuff at Crufts next year after overcoming a serious intestine infection to wow judges.

Dappy, shown by owner Nicole Searle, finished third in the post graduate class at the Scottish Kennel Club Championship Show last month.

His sister Hazel, from the same Barrovian litter, finished Reserve Best in Show at Crufts in 2016.

Miss Searle said: “We took him up to Edinburgh - about three-and-a-half hours and 400 miles away to get to the show. We were only there for about an hour.

“I work at BAE and I do 12-hour shifts so it’s very hard to put the hours in and train him. Most of the other people in shows like this do it as a business. It’s quite hard competing with that and to get into it in the first place.

“He got ill when he was younger. I tried to get him back up to the weight and showing in these events.

“He had to sit on the table while the judge checked his teeth, body and tail and then I had to walk him around the ring and they see how he moves.”

Dappy was just 12 months old when he began suffering from a serious intestinal infection that left him worryingly thin.

Miss Searle said: “I didn’t want to show him straight away, I wanted him to enjoy being a puppy first. Just as I was about to show him, he got ill for a few months.

“He had to have X-rays done and he had an intestine infection. It had swollen and we didn’t know what caused it or anything. It was quite scary.

“Every time he ate, he would be sick. He didn’t start putting on weight again until he was about 18 months old.

“When we look back at photos of him and what he was like, he was really just skin and bones.

“I had to give him water out of a plastic bottle because he wouldn’t drink anything.

“When he was ill the vet told us to make sure he didn’t dehydrate. When we are out and about now he will still drink out of a bottle. He likes it.”