Puppy Blackie is a dog with a taste for dummies.

The nine-month-old mongrel has had to have three operations to remove rubber teats he has swallowed.

So partial is Blackie to children's comforters that his owner, Linsey Ruddock, says she is thinking of changing his name to Soother.

Blackie's supply of dummies comes from Linsey's daughter, ten-month-old Charlie.

Linsey, 22, from Seaham, County Durham, said: "The moment you drop a dummy, he's there. I don't know what his fascination is.

"It's Charlie who has the dummy - but the other kids sometimes drop them and he hangs around them, but Charlie is his best pal.

"He waits to see it drop, then he's there like a shot and, once it's in his mouth, you can't get it from him."

The family discovered Blackie's craving for the unusual snacks after he became ill in September.

Linsey said: "We got him last August when he was a few weeks old but after a short while he became ill. We were worried sick about him. He was off his food, so we decided to take him to the vet."

Veterinary surgeon Feargal Henry, at the PDSA PetAid hospital, in Southwick, Sunderland, took an x-ray, which revealed Blackie had swallowed a dummy teat and it was lodged in his stomach.

After an operation to remove the teat, Blackie was quickly back on all fours.

But a week later, he was returned to the vet after swallowing another teat, and had to have another operation to have it removed.

Then earlier this month, he was back for a third operation, which Feargal hopes is the last.

Linsey and her partner, David Meir, 27, and children, Tristian, four, Jordan, three, have vowed to keep the dummies out of Blackie's way.