Video: Eco-friendly puppy Elsie from East Grinstead collects bags of litter during her daily walks

Barbara Raine, 56, and her partner Matthew Mackenzie, 46, are the owners of Elsie, a four-and-a-half-month-old working springer spaniel.

They said this pedigree pup, who has an instinct for retrieving things, runs off on the Forest Way footpath and proudly returns with plenty of rubbish.

Barbara said: “We let her off the lead when we’re further into the path, away from the road, and she runs from side to side, foraging in the banks.

“She gives us the rubbish and I put it in a bag behind me. I didn’t used to carry a bag but now Elsie brings back so much that I have to carry something.”

Barbara said Elsie likes tin cans in particular because of the noise they make, and after playing with them for a bit she runs off into the woods again.

“She’s going off the path to find it so I’m actually quite ashamed how much litter there is in our area,” said Barbara. “Every day she’s bringing back at least five or six items.”

Barbara and Matt often walk Elsie with Matt’s children – Charlotte, 11, Phoebe, nine, and Fraiser, seven – who are delighted at Elsie’s behaviour and love recycling her ‘finds’.

Barbara said: “I feel quite proud that we’re actually doing something good for the local area and clearing up the litter that people have left behind. There are no bins on each end of this walk apart from a poo bin, so there isn’t anywhere for people to put their rubbish. Not that that should be an excuse for them to throw it.”

She explained that working springer spaniels are intelligent dogs and need plenty of stimulus so she has been taking Elsie’s training seriously.

Barbara added that Matt is an anaesthetist at East Surrey Hospital and that she was working at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead but recently left due to work-related stress. She said: “The puppy for me was part of my recovery and therapy, and she’s proving to be really good therapy because now I feel I’m doing something that's good for me, that’s good for her and good for the local community.”