A heartbroken mum-to-be whose dog bit a woman, will make her own arrangements to have the family pet put down.

Gosia Wasilewska, of Caledonian Crescent, Annan, made the plea at Dumfries Sheriff Court after she and her partner had discussed their pet’s future.

The court it was the second time the animal had bitten someone.

Sheriff George Jamieson said he would have made the order to have the three-year-old Japanese Akita destroyed but, because of the plea, he would allow the couple three weeks to carry it out themselves.

Wasilewska, 28, had admitted being the owner of a dog which was dangerously out of control and bit a woman on the hand in Hospital Road, Annan, last June.

Fiscal depute Lyndsay Hunter told the court the incident happened when the victim was out looking for her own dog, which had escaped from her garden.

The woman had approached Wasilewska to ask if she had seen any sight of it and had put her hands up. The dog then bit her hand, leaving her bleeding.

She was taken to hospital as a precaution.

The fiscal added that the dog had previously bitten the hand of an electricity meter reader when he entered the garden.

However he stressed: “There was a sign on the gate in that instance, warning of the presence of a dog.”

Wasilewska had told police that the dog, named Echo, had been on a muzzle while walking him but as she neared home and, it was a hot day, she had taken it off to allow him to breathe more easily. He then attacked the woman.

Sheriff Jamieson said he would also order compensation of £200 to be paid to the woman when the case was called again.