A POPULAR dog trainer has celebrated her leading dog's tenth birthday despite fearing she wouldn't make it due to illness.

Riff, a Bouvier Des Flandres, is head girl at Janet's Puppy Skool, but the top dog took a turn for the worse and had to have two MRI and CT scans and a spinal tap.

Mrs Garrett told of how she first noticed something was wrong with Riff: “She was walking as normal then suddenly shrank right down for a short period of time, I thought, this is odd as she has never done that before, so I rushed her up to the vets and they couldn’t diagnose anything.

“Exactly a week later she did it again but this time her head was titled to the left, it was a traumatic experience not knowing what was wrong with her at the time.”

She was referred to a specialist in Bath, neurologist Alex Gough, and after multiple tests Riff was diagnosed with partial epilepsy and now has to take two types of drugs.

“It is a fantastic hospital, they have been brilliant and so reassuring, said Janet.

“When this first happened, it felt like she wasn’t our Riff anymore but now she is slowly getting back to herself, she is just adjusting to the medication."

With the dog defying the odds she managed to celebrate her birthday and was treated to a birthday party which had 30 people and 25 canines in attendance.