Edinburgh - French veterinarians have stepped in to help Woofie, a postman-chasing collie whose fate will be decided in a Scottish appeal court later this week. They have sent the dog, free, a sample of a collar which they say controls barking. It has a microphone which, when it picks up the sound of a bark, emits a harmless spray to startle the dog, breaking its behaviour pattern.
Woofie was ordered destroyed in September after the owner, Mr Terence Swankie of Peterhead, admitted a breach of the Dangerous Dogs Act, accepting his pet was "dangerously out of control in a public place".