Lucky hound gets £5 a week to spend on his favourite treats
In the money...Bracken with his wallet. Above, swimming with owner Grant and out shopping PAMPERED pooch Bracken is sitting pretty thanks to his doting owners who give him £5 a week pocket money.
The spoilt Sprocker spaniel has his own wallet to pay for swimming lessons and trips to the pet store for treats.
Owner Grant Ellis, 42, started giving Bracken a weekly allowance after the mutt pinched his wallet.
Grant jokingly bribed him with a £5 note to get his wallet back which got Bracken to drop his grip.
And from that moment, dog walker Grant promised to give his three-year-old pet a fresh note every Friday.
At one point, Bracken – a cross between a Springer and a Cocker Spaniel – had £75 saved.
But usually, after a few weeks, Grant and his wife Cheryl, 42, take him to the shops where he selects his goodies.
Grant, from Sheffield, said: “All spaniels just have to have something in their mouth whether it’s a sock or a pair of pants, and Bracken is just the same.
“One day I was lying on the sofa and he came over, stuck his nose into my pocket and came out with my wallet in his mouth. Usually if he’s pinched something then we bribe him to give it back with a cocktail sausage but we had run out of them that day.
“So just for a joke I pulled out a £5 note and said, ‘Right I’ll give you this fiver if you drop the wallet’, and he did. My wife started laughing and then said, ‘Go on, you’ve got to give it to him now’. Ever since then it’s become a bit of a tradition to give him £5 every Friday.”
Such is their affection for Bracken, the couple decided against starting a family to enable them to focus fully on their pet.
Grant added: “We’re always buying him things anyway, he’s such a spoilt dog, so I thought why not just give him pocket money so he can buy things himself.
“And he absolutely loves water so we take him swimming as well, which is great fun.
“I wanted to give Bracken £20 a week but the wife won’t have it.”