An eco-friendly dog is amazing walkers after his owner trained him to pick up litter and drop it into the nearest bin.
View our amazing gallery of Lucky picking up litter
Lucky, a three-year-old Kelpie-Doberman cross, has been taught to identify different types of rubbish by owner William Keating, 55.
He collects cans, crisp packets and plastic bottles from parks near his home in Gloucester before jumping up onto his hind legs to place them into bins.
However, if Lucky, who responds to sign language style commands, finds a glass bottle he barks twice so that William can check for broken shards.
Former builder William, who collects rubbish with Lucky for at least two hours every day, revealed the dog ”cheers up” local residents.
He said: ”I only showed him how to do it twice and that was it. He has done it ever since. He does lots of tricks, families love him.
”He is pretty well known in Gloucester now but he is best known for collecting rubbish. You just need a lot of patience in the training, it’s about how you do it.
”He knows the location of all the bins in our local parks so whenever I point to a piece of rubbish he picks it up and goes straight to the nearest dustbin.
”There’s so much litter in the world that maybe it doesn’t make a huge difference but it cheers people up to see Lucky doing his bit in the local area.
”I don’t understand why people throw litter away because if a dog can put it into a bin then so can they.”
William has raised Lucky, who is a cross between a Kelpie, an Australian sheepdog, and a Doberman, from a puppy.
Over the last three years he has taught him a variety of commands using complicated hand signals similar to sign language.
Whenever William points the forefinger of his right hand Lucky runs in that direction and searches for rubbish.
He carries anything that he finds to the nearest bin except when he uncovers glass and alerts William with two short barks.
William added: ”He’s very popular amongst the local kids and they love playing football with him because he never jumps up.”
There really needs to be a 'printer-friendly' option for this page… I wanted to print out this story and put it up on my bulletin board but what it takes nine pages of chopped up text to print out this page.
There really needs to be a 'printer-friendly' option for this page… I wanted to print out this story and put it up on my bulletin board but what it takes nine pages of chopped up text to print out this page.
All you have to do is run your cursor over what you want to save and put it into word. It will only take 3 pages. Copy and paste.
Hi, superb story. I am making a documentary on litter. http://www.theprofessionallitterpicker.com I have an article on this same news print, Simon Owens. Would William and Lucky be interested in being interviewed and filmed on camera? Please contact me through my website if so. Many thanks.