Jenny and Colin Coombes from Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset adopted a Romanian border collie rescue dog which they named Cwtch.

He bit a builder who was working in their home.

Ms Coombes said: “He lunged and he nipped. We made sure the guy went to hospital and he was okay about it.”

The couple were worried it might happen again.

Ms Coombes added: “We did debate returning him to the home, the dogs home that we got him from and they helped us over that they were very good and they supported us and offered us extra training and we got through it.

“It was our fault because we were at that stage where we were still inexperienced with handling a dog like that and we just allowed the dog to get a little bit too close to the guy.”

Ms Coombes said she believed dog attacks were not always the owners’ fault.

She said: “Sometimes, especially with a rescue dog it can be a dog that’s got problems and got issues.”