One of Britain's ugliest dogs is licking his wounds after mindless yobs battered him and pulled out his only tuft of hair in a mindless attack. Police in Cambridgeshire are appealing for information after shaken Mugly - who won infamy when he was crowned Britain's Ugliest Dog in 2005 - was apparently set upon by a gang of vicious youths. The hideous prize-winning pooch, a Shitzu-Chinese Crested cross, was rescued by a passer-by who saw off the thugs that were picking on the defenceless dog.
They were allegedly seen hitting him with a stick and kicking and punching him. The local lady recognised the practically hairless cat-sized dog from missing posters that owner Bev Nicholson, 46, had put up in the Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, neighbourhood. He had escaped from a ground-floor window at home on Thursday and was missing for the day. 'They had pulled out a little tuft of hair he had on his neck,' said Bev. 'It was the only hair he had and they even managed to take off one of his eyebrows. I can't even work out how they would have done that. It's not like people carry scissors or a shaver around with them.' And mum-of-four Bev, a support worker for dwarf actors, reckons the youngsters may have carried out the beating because they didn't realise what Mugly was. 'I was worried sick about him,' said Bev. 'He'd never gone missing before and you worry about letting him out because of what he looks like and the fact he's so friendly. 'You just can't think why these people would do such a horrible thing. Part of me thinks they might not have even realised that he was a dog because of him having no hair so they just bullied him. 'It's horrible because he loves people so much he probably thought it was just a game and all they were interested in was hurting him. 'He was really shaken and cowered in to me when he got back to me. He was swollen and bruised around his face and rear end.' Worried Bev took her beloved six-year-old mutt to Broadway Veterinary Hospital where he had a check-up. Vet Adela Navarro said: 'He had a few cuts and was bruised and a little shaken up. We asked the owner to keep an eye on his stools for internal bleeding as a precaution.' Distraught Bev's main worry when the pooch was missing was the fact that he wouldn't have been getting special care for his unusual needs. She said: 'Because he's bald I have to put factor 50 sun-tan lotion on him so he doesn't burn. And because his lower teeth jut out he has to have his food in small pieces. He can't chew properly so you have to break it down for him. 'My main worry was that anyone who found him and tried to care for him wouldn't realise what's required to keep him well, so we got 25 posters up around the area pretty quick.' Thankfully, charmer Mugly is now safely recovering at home but has sadly lost some of his sparkle. Bev said: 'He's a big character in our house and I was so relieved to have him back but he's definitely lost some of his trust. 'He seems a bit unsure when you are playing with him and his toys when normally he wouldn't think twice. I hope the police catch these people and teach them a lesson.'
So when you're in the saddle hold tight, keep your hat on and above all, let him know who's boss.
This, at least, is how this tiny cowboy has stayed king of the rodeo for 18 years. That and his fabulous outfit of course.
From the moment he rides into the rodeo ring on the back of his border collie, Whiplash the capuchin monkey is the star of the show.
With the help of his trusty steed, he rounds up a flock of startled sheep. Then there's the crowd's favourite 'hi-ho silver' moment when the collie becomes a bucking bronco and Whiplash rides tall in the saddle.
Well, as tall as a 12in cowboy can.
His owner, Tommy Lucia, 67, dismisses claims from animal campaigners that Whiplash would be better off in the rainforests of Central or South America, his native habitat.
'I rescued him from a stinking cage in Florida when he was just a baby and I can assure you he'd let me know if life wasn't good,' he declared.
Mr Lucia and Whiplash are regulars at the rodeo in Big Spring, Texas.
But their fan base is rapidly growing. Like most 21-year-olds, Whiplash is on Facebook.
And after starring in a TV ad for a taco restaurant chain, he is also an Internet hit, being seen by millions on YouTube.
Mr Lucia says Whiplash keeps his collies on a short rein.
'The sheepdogs know their place and he curses them like he does me if they are not doing what he says,' he said.
'He's got such a strong will you never quite know what he's going to do - there's always a surprise. But he's a natural in the saddle.
'When he's done for the day he goes to our motor home for dinner. His favourite foods are pears, apples, bananas and especially strawberries.'
Dogs wearing designer clothes strutted their stuff on the catwalk during a fashion show with a canine twist.Accompanied by two-legged models, the pooches paraded a series of fetching outfits from swimsuits to evening wear. The Taipie-based company which launched the collection hope to catch the eye of dog lovers who treat their pets as family members. "I want my dog to dress up like me, just like mother and daughter in the same style dress," said one owner.The dog-wear company plans to open markets in China, Japan and Australia.
A three-year-old girl may never be able to smile again after being scarred for life by a 'devil dog' who had savaged another child months earlier.
The owner of the powerful Japanese Akita fighting dog escaped prosecution for the first attack, which left the boy, 7, requiring 40 stitches, because the animal was on 'secured' property.
But the family of first victim Charlie Faulding were furious the dog wasn't put down and were taking legal action against its owner when another neighbour's child was seriously mauled last week.
Toddler Demi Franklyn was playing with the dog called Tyson outside her home when it suddenly turned on her - breaking her jaw and leaving her with horrific wounds to her head and neck.
The damage to her facial muscles and nerves is so severe she may not be able to smile properly again. The girl's mother, Mary Davies, 39, said she had left her daughter playing in their back yard - which they share with Tyson's owner - unaware the dog had a violent history.
Demi has undergone one operation at Bradford Royal Infirmary and doctors may need to carry out reconstructive surgery on her jaw as well.
Mother-of-five Miss Davies of Shipley, West Yorkshire, said: 'I am in shock. I just don't understand how this could have happened. That animal had a taste for blood and nothing was done about it. It beggars belief.
'I just want to know why that dog wasn't put down after the first attack. Something wasn't done that should have been and it is my daughter who has paid the price.'
Last June Charlie was savaged when his football bounced into the dog owner's garden three doors away and he went to retrieve it.
The schoolboy suffered severe injuries to his head and legs.
His father Mark Faulding, 36, was alerted by the boy's 12-year-old sister and found him lying unconscious in a pool of blood.
He fought off the dog to rescue him from the neighbour's garden.
Charlie still bears the scars of the savaging and has been left traumatised by the experience, suffering nightmares and refusing to sleep alone. The family has since moved house.
Mr Faulding, a horse trainer, said: 'It is disgusting. To think the dog's owner left this animal unguarded and near children.
'He knew what this dog was capable of but he didn't stop this little girl playing near it. It is simply unbelievable. It didn't even have a muzzle on.
'We have been fighting to have this devil dog destroyed since Charlie was attacked and the only thing that made that happen was another attack on an even younger child. That child could have died.'
The dog's owner Mohammed Asam Bashir has now had Tyson put down. The first attack happened at his family home, where the dog was kept in a secure pen behind a wall and padlocked gate.
The second attack was at his business address at a different location.
Mr Bashir has been unavailable for comment.
A West Yorkshire Police spokesman confirmed the dog had been 'destroyed' and the attack on Demi was currently under investigation.
'We can confirm this dog was previously involved in an incident which resulted in no further action being taken at the time due to the circumstances,' he said.
Police decided no offence had been committed in the first incident as the dog was kept at home and secured in the garden. The boy had previously been advised not to retrieve the football unaccompanied.
So you’re thinking something like: “What is that lady doing with an odd-looking oversized Ninja Turtle cuddly toy?” Except that it isn’t a cuddly toy. It’s a real live poodle. Meet Cindy, also known as Leonardoodle, and her owner, Sandy Paws. The picture before you is just one of Ms Paws’ executions of “creative grooming”. We’re really not sure if it’s ethical, but here are some more jaw-dropping examples of Sandy’s canine-sprucing makeovers on Cindy. People might claim that someone who does this sort of thing to dogs has got some answering to do. One dog-lover even wondered how she would like it if she were forced to have an all over body tattoo made up of stuff in dogs’ imaginations – bones, say, or rubber balls. A hair-brained remark if ever there was one – you see, Cindy has lots of guises, none of them permanent – though you can see what the guy was getting at. In any case, clearly the judges don’t see things the same way as the critics. Yes, folks, this is creative grooming at it’s finest; award winning creative grooming. It seems Sandy and Cindy have been scooping prizes everywhere from Burbank in the duo’s native California, to Las Vegas, Nevada, and you can’t fault the skill of Sandy’s handiwork – or its, erm, imagination. Who would ever think of transforming a dog into a camel – or a dragon? Now don’t get us wrong, there are heaps of good reasons for conventional dog grooming, including the fact that it cleans the dog, improves the health of its skin and coat, and lessens the chance of skin problems. “But not when you’re using dyes in every colour of the rainbow!” cried one observer in horror. “And just look at that thing, reduced to the status of a chicken, or a punk rocker – I don’t know which is worse!” In Sandy Paws’ defence, she claims to use only semi-permanent hair colour, blo-pens, coloured artists’ chalk with a smidgen of hairspray, temporary spray colour – what else? – oh yes, and all the “special touches” – add-ons such as feathers, pompoms and plastic flowers. A veritable arsenal of colourants, props and adhesives, then, though apparently nothing Sandy wouldn’t use on herself. That’s OK then.
A space dog-essey One other point made by those who see grooming in general as an important part of dog care is that it helps to build a relationship between the dog and owner. Well, judging from the photos, Sandy is certainly enjoying the bonding sessions. But is it us, or does Cindy look as though she’s not quite so pleased to be there?
Peacock dog For those who are left a little queasy by the whole concept – if not by the garish colours then by its syrupy beauty queen sheen – the good news is that there’s a whole sub-culture out there. 25 years young and with a readership of 20,000, magazine Groomer to Groomer is a mouthpiece for all things groom-tastic. Scary? Needless to say, Sandy and Cindy have made the front cover.
A dog-owner risked his life by plunging into a frozen lake to save his pet.
Walkers were stunned to see the man dive into the water, despite repeated warnings for him not to.
He had been shouting at his black cocker spaniel 'Jarvis' to come back to the shore after it ran onto the ice chasing ducks. The dog became trapped in water which had not frozen over in the centre of the lake.
After five minutes of frantic doggy paddling, the dog was struggling to keep his head above the surface and was not able to climb back on to the ice.
His owner quickly removed some of his clothes, despite the sub-zero temperatures, and stepped off the bank, smashing the ice as he went neck-deep into water.
Both emerged shivering from the cold but the owner simply shook himself dry and calmly walked away. University lecturer Julie Brown, 46, captured the drama at Alkrington Woods in Middleton, Greater Manchester on New Year's Day and described the man as being as 'cool as a cucumber'.
'The dog was struggling and started going under. It was very traumatic and people were screaming. My daughter was petrified,' she said.
'I don't know who he is but I'd like to congratulate him for being so brave.'
Alkrington Angling Club's Lee Fairbrother said the rescuer was 'lucky to come out alive'.
He said: 'The water may be shallow, but under that you have five-foot of silt which can pull you under like quicksand.'
A fire service spokesman said: 'We advise people not to let their dog run on ice. They can end up in very dangerous circumstances.'
A one-eyed, three-legged dog that won the title of world's ugliest pooch this summer has died.
Gus, a Chinese crested dog, had cancer. He was nine years old.
The animal was rescued from a bad home and went on to win the annual World's Ugliest Dog contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in northern California.
Gus came from humble origins. According to the fair, his adopted family in Gulfport, Florida, rescued him after learning he was being kept in a crate inside someone's garage.
He had one leg amputated because of a skin tumor and lost an eye in a cat fight.
Gus' owner had said the prize money from the contest would be put toward the dog's radiation treatment.
But Hubble – branded Britain’s ugliest dog – is more concerned about burying bones and fetching sticks.
Yet that didn’t stop his owners leaving the eight-year-old tied up in a wood a fortnight ago due to his less-than-handsome looks. Luckily the mongrel, who was left disfigured after being injured in his youth, was saved by bighearted animal rescue workers.
And now they are looking to find the unsightly pooch a new, more loving owner – preferably someone who prefers personality to looks.
Amanda Sands, the manager of the Dogs Trust centre in Leeds, said the black terrier-type cross looked even worse when he was first brought in.
He had several rotting canine teeth and infected gums, which were removed and treated with antibiotics.
She said: ‘Hubble is one of the strangest looking dogs I’ve ever seen but he makes up for it in personality. Even though he looks quite odd it kind of gives him a cute factor.
‘He’s very loyal and just loves human company so he would make a brilliant best friend for that special person who can see past what he looks like.
‘It’s a shame but ordinarily we would expect him to stay here for quite some time.
‘People do tend to come and pick the cuter dogs. The others - our “sticky dogs” - can be here for months.
‘Hubble is definitely a bit unusual but he’s a very sweet dog. It would be a shame if someone missed out on him because of what he looks like.
'He’s a great little dog. ‘Hubble’s injury to his mouth appears to be an old one. He is not in any pain and is entirely healthy. ‘He would be best suited to a home with only adults or older children and no other pets, so he can be the centre of attention.
Ms Sands said: ‘It’s sad but sometimes people do abandon pets who don’t look “normal”. It can be for a number of reasons and unfortunately that is one of them.
‘I don’t think that Hubble is aware of his unusual looks. He’s confidence has grown every day since he arrived and we love him to bits.
‘It will sad to see him go but we’re always overjoyed when one of our dogs goes to a good home.’
The Dogs Trust has recently been hit hard by the credit crunch, with more people wanting to get rid of their pets and less people prepared to take them on.
Ms Sands added: ‘We have about 100 dogs in at the moment, but if we had the room that would be hundreds.
‘We have a waiting list full of people who tell us they want us to take in their dog.’ Anyone brave enough to adopt Hubble or find out more about the Dogs Trust can call 0113 281 4920.
Mondex, a Chihuahua, wears a pirate costume during a Halloween dog show for the benefit of an animal welfare organization in Manila.Amazingly, Mondex actually won the prize for the most creative costume.
A beloved pet bulldog has been fitted with a £10,000 bionic leg, which will help advance prosthetic techniques used to help bombing victims.
Coal, an eight-and-a-half year old hound had his left paw amputated because of cancer last year. He faced being put down because his other legs would be too weak to carry him. But his determined owner Reg Walker, shelled out thousands of pounds to fit him with a sophisticated bionic leg, which was designed to be compatible with Coal's own tissue.
The titanium alloy used mimics animal hide, allowing the skin and the bone from above to seal the metal implant below without it being rejected by the body.
It is only the second time such an operation had been performed on an animal, using a technique performed on a survivor of the London 7/7 bombings.
Vet Noel Fitzpatrick told the Enfield Independent: 'This is unique in that its the world's only implant into which skin and bone grow. It is the holy grail of research.
'If you have an accident and your bone sticks out through your shin, skin will try to grow round it. People have been trying for this for years and years -because with this we get an umbrella of skin attached to the metal.'
Mr Walker, who is a music industry security guard was thrilled with the results.
He said: 'When I found out about Coal I was gutted. He goes everywhere with me - he goes on tour, he's the only dog to have allowed into Live 8 and the only dog that has ever been backstage at the Royal Albert Hall.
'Now he has an absolutely normal quality of life, which he wouldn't have had before.'
The heaving mass of fox hounds would intimidate even the biggest stag.
But tiny orphan deer Bam Bam isn't scared.
Like his namesake Bambi the 10-week-old is a friendly creature and trots along with huntsman Adrian Thompson, 42, and his pack of 60 hounds. The pack immediately accepted the lost fallow deer when they found him shivering by the Thompsons' front gate just an hour after he had been born.
Rather than being overwhelmed by the attention of such a large pack of dogs, from the Chiddingfold, Leconfield and Cowdray hunt, the confused little fawn thought he'd found his family.
A surprised Mr Thompson said: 'Now Bam Bam thinks he's a Fox Hound because they all treat him like one of their own.
'He won't be going on any hunts though - he doesn't have the stamina for it. It's a fantastic sight to see although we know it's a strange one and Bam Bam certainly gets a lot of funny looks from passers-by.
'People shake their heads in astonishment when they spot Bam Bam in among all the hounds as if they can't believe what they're seeing.' The friendly fawn is happiest among his fellow hounds on their daily walk.
Mr Thompson's wife, Karen, 41, said: 'Bam Bam seems most content when he's ambling along with the hounds. He's about the same size as them now so he fits in perfectly and walks along with the pack like they're his brothers and sisters.'
Although the Fox Hounds have come to accept Bam Bam as one of their own, Mr Thompson's other dogs are rather less tolerant.
He said: 'A pack of domestic dogs would most certainly kill a deer that came across it's path - I also have two terriers and they would certainly kill anything that came into the garden. They're only just starting to accept little Bam Bam but I still wouldn't leave them alone with him. 'My Fox Hounds are very different though - the image of them as savage killers is completely wrong. They can be very placid animals and are very accepting of other animals - especially deer.'
After Bam Bam was discovered by the dogs earlier this summer he was brought into the family home in Petworth Park, West Sussex by Mr Thompson's 12-year-old son, Tommy.
When Karen came down for breakfast that morning she was stunned to see the pair sitting happily on the living room floor.
She said: 'It was such a surprise, the deer wasn't afraid at all. He seemed to think that Tommy was his mum because he followed him around the room, and would hide behind the furniture if Tommy ever left.' It was uncertain whether Bam Bam would survive without the care and attention of his mother who had deserted him just yards from the Thompsons' home, possibly scared off by the dogs.
Karen said: 'It was touch and go for the first few days. We had to feed him half an ounce of lamb's milk every hour - this had to be done 24 hours a day and was quite draining.'
Bam Bam is now regarded by the Thompsons as a member of the family.
Karen said: 'He wanders around the garden and comes to play with us. We've had a few garden parties and he is such a favourite with the guests - he's so friendly and is adored by everyone who meets him.'
Bam Bam, who will grow into a 177 pound adult, will stay with the family until they feel he can be safely released into the wild. Karen said: 'We can't release him into the park here because there are too many people about. Bam Bam is not afraid of humans and we're worried that this may make him dangerous.
'He already gives us a nudge when he wants to eat and it's not so bad because he's only little but imagine what a nudge could do when he's got a fine pair of antlers.'
The Thompsons will be sad to lose such a treasured member of the family but they know they can't keep him forever and plan to set him free once he's fully grown.
Next year they intend to rehome Bam Bam in a private park where he will be able to join a herd and finally learn how to be a deer.
Traditionally, deer hunting involves chasing the animal with a pack of dogs until it surrenders to exhaustion and can be shot.
This practice was banned under the Hunting Act 2004.
Deer stalking, where the hunter is close enough to kill the animal with a clean shot, is still permitted but with no more than two dogs.
There is a Cantonese saying that the Chinese eat everything that flies, except aeroplanes; everything with four legs, except tables; and everything that swims, except submarines - and visitors to Beijing's fast-food market during the Olympic Games will be left in no doubt of that.
A stroll among the food stalls of Wangfujing Snack Street, not far from Tiananmen Square, reveals delicacies of every conceivable kind. Laid out in trays and boiling in cauldrons are everything from goat lungs with red peppers to scorpion brochettes, seahorses on skewers, iguana tails, dung beetles and silk worms on a stick, by way of fried sparrows, grilled snake and turkey vulture schnitzels.
The locals insist that Western visitors shouldn't be put off the food on sale on this street - after all, it is mostly 'conventional' Chinese cuisine and great for lunch or dinner.
Indeed, even though dog meat is off the menu for competitors during the Games - they'll be filling themselves up with high-protein drinks and masses of carbohydrates - tourists can still sample dog brain soup or dog liver with vegetables. As the official Beijing travel guide points out, Westerners should not turn up their noses at these dishes.
'While you might consider things eaten in China to be distasteful, you must bridge the cultural gap and look at it with an open mind,' it advises.
And an open mouth come to that - for as the guide also points out: 'There have been times of severe famine (in China), even as recently as the late Sixties, when tens of millions died of starvation in the Great Leap Forward. Back then, you would have been glad to have had what's on today's menu.'
The half-a-million visitors from around the world who are expected to flood into the Chinese capital over the next three weeks will have the opportunity to try these home-grown specialities - if they have the stomach for it.
And many do try, even if they struggle. One U.S. visitor, Jackie Siegel, could not resist starfish fried in shark oil, though the centipedes, worms and scorpions on offer 'kind of bothered me a little'. 'I'm trying to down the sea urchin, but I don't think I can do it. It doesn't even taste cooked. You know what it looks like? Something really dirty,' she said.
It's not a view shared by the Chinese, who take great pride in their cuisine - dog, in particular, which is a speciality in the Korean restaurants of Beijing, where it is known as gou rou (which is pronounced 'go row').
But Chinese chefs insist they do not cook pets - they say the dogs are specially raised for cooking, 'just as cow, lamb or chicken would be in the West'.
So the visitor must put their ideas of good taste on hold for the duration of their visit and try a freshly fried and seasoned skewer of farmed scorpions, one of the most famous of the delicacies on offer, which costs about 50 yuan (£3.70).
At the weekend, one 19-year- old British tourist plucked up the courage to try a seahorse on a stick for 15 yuan (£1.10). 'It's not too bad,' he said, while biting into the cooked tail. 'It's definitely a different experience.'
But the delicacies of Wangfujing Snack Street are not only about taste and appetite.
The Chinese also believe that certain animals, or their limbs and organs, have medicinal or lifeenhancing properties, such as deer's antlers boiled as tea or snake pickled in China's popular baijiu alcohol.
'Seahorses are good for men's kidneys and their virility,' says Sun Hainan, a young food trader from the Anhui province in the east of the country, who has a stall in the street.
'Crustacean are good for girls - they improve their skin and looks - and lizards boost virility.'
Scorpions are said to make your blood hotter in cold weather and to cure 'certain conditions', although no one seems sure what grasshoppers on a stick are a remedy for, or mixed cow and horse soup, come to that. Ever since the first European merchants and missionaries visited China, Westerners have been appalled by what the Chinese eat.
In the late 13th century, Marco Polo noted with distaste that the Chinese liked eating snakes, dogs and, in some places, even human flesh.
French Jesuit historian Jean-Baptiste du Halde recorded a Chinese banquet in 1736 in which guests ate: 'Stag pizzles [penises] . . . bears' paws . . . nay, they do not scruple eating cats, rats and such like animals.'
As Chinese food expert Fuchsia Dunlop writes in her fascinating book Shark's Fin & Sichuan Pepper, the 19th-century British surgeon C. Toogood Downing described British sailors in the port of Guangzhou picking carefully at their food 'lest they should detect themselves in the act of devouring an earthworm, or picking the delicate bones of a cat'. Dunlop describes a Chinese cookbook she came across with full colour photographs in which the heads and feet of various fowl loll over the rims of serving dishes.
On one page, 11 lizards have been partially skinned and deep-fried, 'so their bodies, golden and crisp like chicken nuggets, are sandwiched between scaly tails and heads in which the ruined eyeballs have been replaced by fresh green peas'.
There is a whippy egg-white pudding decorated with cherries and what look like chocolate sprinkles, but on closer inspection turn out to be dried ants (good for dispelling rheumatism).
And then there is the piece de resistance - a whole puppy, roasted crisp, with a garnish of coriander and flowers made from pink radishes.
While living in China, Dunlop ate rabbit heads, pig brains, scorpion and preserved duck eggs - known as 1,000-year- old eggs - whose oozy black yolks and 'noxious aroma' caused her flesh to crawl, made her feel sick and left a toxic black slime on her chopsticks.
She visited a restaurant in Sichuan that specialised in insect dishes, where she had the expensive delicacies bee pupae, timber grubs and sand-crawling caterpillars, which she pronounced to be delicious. She ate sheep's lungs and even the ovarian fat of a snow frog.
'Although a typical Chinese meal consists of grain, pork and vegetables with a bit of fish or seafood thrown in, there is little that can't be considered a potential ingredient,' she says.
'Most people eat dog meat and donkey penis rarely, if at all, but there is no taboo in China about the idea of eating them.'
Mind you, according to the ancient historian Pliny the Elder, the Romans ate flamingo tongues, while medieval Europeans dined on living geese and 19th-century Americans liked deer testicles, so you can't call one culinary cuisine more cultured than another.
On Wangfujing Snack Street, however, the fried silk worms and dung beetles, baby sharks and fried starfish jostle with that most famous, and admired, delicacy - bird's nest soup.
It is made from the nest of the swiftlet, a tiny bird that lives in caves in South-East Asia. Instead of twigs and straw, it makes its nest from its own saliva.
Harvesting the nests requires great skill: men balance on tall bamboo poles to grab the nests from inside the dark caves. Sadly, bird's nest soup actually has a rather bland taste.
But then its recent rise in popularity comes from its growing reputation around the world as a health tonic - and aphrodisiac.
So there might just be a point in trying it, along with lizard legs and a couple of seahorses on the side, from that roadside stall in Beijing after all.
This tiny puppy may have been born without front legs but there's no way that is holding her back.
Hope, the appropriately named two-legged Maltese puppy gets around by using a specially-designed device which features wheels from a model aeroplane.
The energetic pup uses her hind legs to boost her body forward onto her chest and operate the wheeled prosthetic limbs.
The beloved pooch was born with only two legs and has small wriggling nubs where her front legs should be.
At first Hope moved around by hopping but experts said her her natural mode of moving eventually would damage her bones and spine.
The wheeled device was created by orthotist David Turnbill free of charge with makeshift shoulder joints connected to model airplane wheels.
Each of the device's 'arms' can move up or down independently of the other, allowing Hope to pivot and turn.
The spring-loaded prosthetic arms hook to a custom-fitted chest plate to allow Hope to lay down or sit up without removing the prosthetic.
The wheels she uses as front legs took some getting used to and at first the tiny lap dog would tip over to one side.
However practice made perfect and now the persistent puppy has mastered the art of wheeling herself around, there is no stopping her.
In fact she can bound across a room at a surprisingly break-neck pace.
'She gets around fine,' said the puppy's rehabilitation specialist Cassy Englert.
'She never knew anything other than hopping like she did. The hardest thing is teaching her a new way to get around that's going to actually be better for her,' he added.
Hope was taken in by Southern Comfort Maltese Rescue in Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA when she was six weeks old.
When the puppy grows bigger she will need to have another device made for her.
Crowds at a dog show made a double take when they witnessed what looked like an escaped mop-head leaping hurdles and bounding through an obstacle course.
But this is no mop - it is in fact a pedigree Hungarian sheepdog named Fee, who will be making a bid for stardom at an international dog show in Germany, next week.
The mutt's rastafarian tresses obscure most of its face, but that hasn't stopped him sweeping through the course without a hitch.
Fluffy Fee will take on 6,000 other dogs at the Dortmund show next week and owner Eva Meyer says she is confident he will wipe the floor with the competition.
