A woman duped by a scam breeder thought she was buying a miniature cockapoo but instead ended up with a pooch the 'same size as a Shetland pony'.
Tiffany Kindgon paid £2,000 for Winnie and was expecting her to remain the same size she was at a few months old.
But to her shock little Winnie, who weighed just 4.6kg at 11 weeks old, continued to grow and grow, the Mirror reports.
Tiffany and partner Liam soon realised they were scammed when their messages to the breeder kept bouncing back, she told This Morning hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary during an interview on the show.
Now, at just over a year old, Winnie is a whopping 32kg - or five stone - the same size as a baby rhino.
Hairdresser Tiffany, 23, joked: “‘Buy a miniature Cockapoo’, they said. ‘It will be fun’, they said.
"Then she turned into a Shetland pony, but I love her so much."
She continued: "We budgeted and worked out we could afford a little dog, but she eats so much food! But I wouldn't change her for the world.
"We went to the breeder and saw Winnie, and thought, 'Oh my gosh, we have got to have her.'
"She looked like a normal cockapoo, fairly small, we saw the mum, she was a cocker spaniel, we had paperwork, she was microchipped, it all seemed very genuine."
Tiffany said the breeder told them Winnie's father was a miniature poodle - but Winnie was actually mixed with Irish setter and a poodle.
"It was a shock, I was going on Facebook and saying, 'Does anyone else have a cockapoo this big?'" laughed Tiffany, who said Winnie's growth became especially evident when she was six months old and her legs got longer and longer.
After fellow dog walkers told Tiffany they didn't think Winnie was a cockapoo, she decided to get her a DNA test done to find out her heritage.
"Dogs obviously can't understand - but I kept saying to her, you're an Irish poodle! You're not a cockapoo!" she added.
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