PAMPERED pooches can watch their favourite TV programme while lying by the fire in one of eight luxury kennels at a new hotel for dogs near York.

Top Dog Kennels, near Full Sutton, is set in ten acres of countryside and even boasts a bone-shaped lake for its holidaymakers to swim in.

Each of the eight kennels take on a different theme, ranging from a poker suite to a country cottage, and are fitted with a television set, DVD player, flame-effect fire and air-conditioning.

Nothing is too much trouble for the three kennel maids, who watch television with the canines in the evening and even treat them to bedside stories. Owners Martin and Lesley Saunders, who invested more than £250,000 in the project, said they had attracted customers from as far away as Scotland and the south coast since their first kennel opened two years ago.

“We do whatever the customer tells us to do, however bizarre it might seem,” said Martin, 42. “We have had dogs that must be fed three-course meals and one that arrived with a wash bag, flannel and mirror.”

Dogs are taken on six walks a day and have the free run of a three-acre play park.

A full set of Disney DVDs is available for the canines to choose from and the complex also has a grooming parlour, where dogs can enjoy a wash, cut and blow dry.

The couple have two dogs of their own – Holly, a labrador cross, and Barney, a Jack Russell cross.

“They are our world,” he said. “We love them to death. We don’t have any children, so they are our life. They sleep in our bed and we would do anything for them.

“We used to look after our friends’ dogs while they went away on holiday and when they came back they always said they looked much healthier and happier than when they dropped them off.

“They suggested we should set up our own kennels and it went from there.”

Martin and Lesley have now submitted a planning application to East Riding of Yorkshire Council to build a canine hydrotherapy pool on site to help overweight pooches and those recovering from operations.

The development would also include treatment rooms, where dogs can receive aromatherapy and massages.

• The kennel has a new website, topdog-york.co.uk which will go live soon. For more information phone 01759 373837.

• Kennel prices range from £18.95 to £29.95 per day, depending on the size of dog.