Floyd the sausage dog reunited with owners after being lured by bacon

A terrified sausage dog who spent three days lost on farmland was reunited with his emotional owners after they tried to entice him from his hiding place by cooking bacon.

Floyd, a seven-month-old miniature sausage dog, bolted into a field in Middleton Tyas, North Yorkshire, when he was frightened by barking on Friday evening.

The moment he finally plucked up the courage to come out of hiding on Monday was captured on video by his owners, Fern Holmes and Doug Dinwiddie, who had to sit still until he came to them.

They had feared the worst as Floyd was nowhere to be seen over the weekend, even when they brought out their 18-month Airedale, Freida, to entice him out.

Ms Holmes, 32, said:

"We were at the family farm and one of the dogs started barking and Floyd got frightened and took flight.

"He did a lap of two of the fields, and the farm is 350 acres, and we wererunning after him.

"Then he disappeared into an 80-acre oilseed rape field and at that point, Irang Doug."

She appealed for help on Facebook and family, friends and members of the public joined the hunt over the weekend.

The breeders where the Darlington couple bought Floyd even brought over his parents to try to coax him out with their familiar scent, without success.

People suggested they contact Mandy Butler, an expert from the Lost DogTrapping Team on Facebook, who came over on Saturday to help them.

She advised that Floyd had gone into survival mode after being so frightened, and would not come if people were calling his name as he would still be terrified.

She lent them motion-cameras and a night-vision scope and was even considering sending up a drone.

With no sign of him by Monday morning, the couple thought he might have gone forever as they felt he was lacking the survival skills of less cuddly dogs.

But a farmer caught sight of him in the field and another searcher confirmedshe thought she saw the puppy, so everyone apart from his owners and theirAiredale left the farm, waiting for Floyd to feel safe enough to come out.

Ms Butler advised them to cook bacon on disposable barbecues, open tins of sardines and leave trails of beef stock to lure him out, and finally, afterabout three hours, he did and smothered them in licks.

Ms Holmes, said:

"You can see from the video I was hysterical with emotion. I was so tired after no sleep all weekend, I just couldn't quite believe my eyes."

The couple said Floyd was grubby but otherwise unharmed after his adventure, and they will now slowly build up his confidence again while walking with them.

They said they will also now buy a tracking device for his collar.