A NEW charity helping pet owners find their beloved dogs has received a big boost from Waitrose's Community Matters scheme.

K9 Search Dogs in Lewdown was set up by Sam Clark last year to help dog owners find their missing animals who may have escaped from the garden or run off during a walk.

Sam trains bloodhounds to search for humans, but has now added missing dogs to their range of skills.

She started training her bloodhounds to search for other dogs last May, and went on her first official callout in February.

She said: 'Working the bloodhounds, I was getting lots of call-outs to help find other dogs.

'It made sense to go official and train our hounds to help find other dogs. We have registered with the Inland Revenue as a not-for-profit organisation, and hope to become a fully registered charity in the near future.'

K9 Search Dogs was selected as one of the three local organisations for the Waitrose Community Matters scheme in February. Last Friday, the store donated a cheque for £524.

Sam said: 'This donation from Waitrose is a great start to a new organisation like ours and will be a massive help.'

To find out more about K9 Search Dogs, visit http://www.k9searchdog.org">www.k9searchdog.org