Delighted owner Catherine Speak, 66, said her border collie Jess (who is possibly part Welsh collie too) just loves collecting the items while out and about.
Catherine, who is retired, said: “Being a collie, Jess needs a job. So even though she does agility, which she’s brilliant at, twice a week, and has entered the odd competition, they do need a job. If I don’t take a ball out for her – because you don’t want your dog to get too obsessed with a ball – she will then find something to drop at my feet for me to kick. And even if I don’t kick it she still takes it with her on the whole walk.”
Catherine said three-year-old Jess just started rummaging through the woods one day and finding bottles and cans without any instruction from her. So the pair ended up taking what Jess found home to put in the recycling bin.
She said: “Now, if I say to her ‘go find a can or a bottle’ she’ll go find one. You think you’re in a nice clean park where you can’t see anything and Jess dives into the hedge and comes out with a can.”
Catherine explained that she takes Jess on about two or three walks a day so, on average, Jess brings home one can and one bottle per day. And, because Jess is so obedient, she always comes back to Catherine when she’s called.
Catherine said that if she and Jess are in Malling Fields, which has its own recycling bin, she will put what Jess finds in the bin there and then Jess will dash off to find more litter. She said: “Sometimes she’ll pick up one of those two litre plastic bottles. They’re huge and she’s trying to get it in her mouth but she insists on it.”
Catherine said she was married to a vet for 22 years who taught her a lot about dogs and said she ‘does not get over worried about anything’.
She said other dog walkers and passers-by ‘absolutely love it’ when they spot Jess on her mission. She said: “I get comments all the time saying ‘oh look, your dog’s recycling’ and I say ‘yes, she is, she takes it all the way home’.
Catherine added that her young grandson Jude has grown up with Jess and is very close with her.
5. Jess
Catherine Speak said her grandson Jude has grown up with Jess Photo: Catherine Speak