A DOG owner has been reunited with his pets after enlisting the help of pet detectives.

The two brown and white springer spaniels, Larsson and Nell, were stolen from a summer house at Gary Notley’s home.

Mr Notley, 53, got in touch with Wales-based business Stolen and Stray Pet Recovery to help find his pets,.

He said: “I employed some pet detectives. I got them involved in the search.”

After twoweeks, the detectives had tracked down the dogs. They were still in Essex and it is believed they may have been stolen for breeding.

Mr Notley said: “I came home and my daughter, her boyfriend and my ex-wife were at home.

They said they’d been tidying up the spare room and when I went up the dogs were both there.

“It was surreal and I was just a bit numb. There were tears, happiness and the whole rollercoaster of emotions.”

Stolen and Stray co-founder Stephanie Kent-Nye said: “Gary got in touch quickly. If people leave it for weeks the trail can go cold. We publicised it across all the vets and authorities and then picked up some intelligence that allowed us to act.”

The hunt for the dogs was shared through social media with more than 1,800 Facebook users liking the Find Nell and Larsson page.

Mr Notley, of Fairstead Road, Fairstead, said he realised the success of the campaign when he took the dogs to the vets for a check-up.

He said: “Larsson has got some wounds to his face and a couple of nicks near his eyes.

When I went to the vets, everybody said, ‘Are those the two stolen dogs?’ “The practice manager said they had more than 10,500 hits on their website.”

Mr Notley, a former sales manager, who hopes to establish a dog training business, was even offered help by pet clairvoyants.

He said: “We had two animal communicators from the USA do a reading and one of them said the dogs were in a stable with people who worked with horses.

“When we got them back, both of them smelled like a manure heap and Larsson had hay on him – it is quite unusual.”

An Essex Police spokesman said: “The dogs have been recovered and police are investigating the circumstances.”