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NEOPOLITAN mastiff Klash really was looking rather hangdog until owner Jo Marik decided to get her pet pooch a facelift.
But this was no vanity driven, Hollywood-type, elective surgery, poor Klash is from a breed which is known for the heavy skin folds around the head and face.
The overhanging skin had led to Klash's eyes forming in a diamond shape with the eyelids turning in on themselves causing the lashes to scratch at the eye's surface.
And in Klash's case the problem had become so severe that he had become blind in one eye.
Jo, 31, and husband David, 44, have only owned the three-year-old gentle giant for a month and Jo realised almost straight away that there was a problem as he was bumping into things on one side.
She took him to see Dr Nonnie Coutts and, after preliminary health checks and blood works, the veterinary surgeon came up with the idea of a facelift offering to perform a temporary procedure to see how the dog would cope before going ahead with the major surgery.
Jo said: "Dr Nonnie first pulled back the fold of skin and sewed it onto the top of Klash's head to see how he would get on and if it would improve things.
"To be honest it looked ridiculous and I nicknamed him the Neopolitan ridge head but it did the trick.
"After a few days I called and said it seemed to be working and we decided to go ahead with the facelift.
"I think Dr Nonnie has performed the operation once before but this was her first facelift on a mastiff and it was a really big job.
"Klash was in surgery for a good three or four hours so it was a major procedure and when I saw him with 27 stitches across the top of his head I just burst into tears but Dr Nonnie has been brilliant and he has coped really well with it.
"He seems to be enjoying life much more and is playing with toys now which he didn't do before, perhaps now he can see them better.
"He's really eager to please and is having a lovely life. He was a bit underweight when I got him and I don't think he had been particularly loved at his previous home in Kuwait so this is very different for him and he is having a great time.
"I've even had to change my car so that he can come out with me."
And the future is looking bright for the surgically enhanced canine, who has really landed on his paws with his new family.
Though there is still one more operation in store.
Jo said: "He can still see out of his good eye but it is just starting to get very slightly cloudy and we want to do everything we can to make sure we save the sight in that one, after all a 57 kilo dog who can't see is not a great idea."
