A SOUTH Shore guide dog owner is heartbroken after her beloved pet was bitten and became too nervous to work.

Pensioner Mrs Margaret Warren has had to let five-year-old Colonel go to friends while she waits for another dog to be trained at a cost of £2,500.

Colonel, a golden labrador, was nipped twice by a cross-bred Jack Russell terrier as Mrs Warren strolled past shops near her Brook Street home.

"His harness retricted his movement so he couldn't get away, and then he became too nervous to wear the harness," said Mrs Warren.

"People from the guide dogs training centre came to asses him but said he was too badly affected to be re-trained.

"I was heartbroken to have to let him go, and now I'm hardly able to get out until I get a new dog."

Happily, her friends Don and Beryl Ridgeway, who run the nearby Lane Ends pub, offered Colonel a home, and now, said Mrs Warren, "at least I'm able to visit him whenever I want."

She complained to the dog warden about the terrier Tammy from Holts clothing shop on Spen Corner, run by Mr Barry Holt.

Mr Holt said: "People are in and out of the shop all day and it's not always possible to keep her in.

"Having said that, I was very sorry about what happened to Colonel and I apologised profusely to Mrs Warren.

"The dog warden explained that if Tammy was vicious we would be liable, but we've never had any other reports of her biting other dogs."

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