A dog bit off more than he could chew when he swallowed a two-foot-long stick.

Hector, a Great Dane puppy, got the 62cm conifer branch lodged between his neck and his stomach while playing in the garden of his home in Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire. Amazingly the hungry pooch still managed to wolf down his dinner, so owner Pamela Panting didn't realise there was anything wrong until the next day.

"The following morning he wouldn't touch his breakfast and he was drooling a lot," said Mrs Panting. The 53-year-old tutor took Hector to see a vet and an x-ray showed he had swallowed the massive branch.

"You hear reports of dogs swallowing strange things but a stick this length is very unusual," said veterinary surgeon Lenny Cooper, of Cayton Veterinary Surgery in St Albans, Hertfordshire."There was a risk the stick could have torn Hector's stomach but he was very lucky to escape with just a few scratches in his mouth. Unfortunately the stick was too far down his throat for us to reach it. We could have removed it surgically through his stomach but that would have been more invasive."

The poorly pup was taken to the Royal Veterinary College where the stick was removed using long forceps. Mrs Panting said: "Hector is fine now and making a good recovery. It cost us more than £2,000 in vets bills but we're just pleased he is alright."

Apologies to those strange people who don't like dogs but it has been quite a doggy week!

Swallowing turned out to be the easy part of the process...