While most dogs are happiest tucking into steak, chicken or treats, Bailey the labrador’s favourite meal is far from the norm – socks.

The loveable pet from Pendeford, in Wolverhampton, loves nothing more than devouring socks, and emergency surgery fails to deter him from his favourite meal.

Bailey’s owners were aware of his taste for socks, clothes and underwear, but noticed something was wrong when the three-year pedigree dog refused to eat or drink, and fell quiet.

Frantic owner Alison Griffiths, aged 39, rushed him in to St George’s Vets for an emergency appointment where he was monitored overnight and put on a drip to stop dehydration.

It was only after an X-ray revealed a mass in the intestines that vets operated and discovered a sock he had swallowed whole.

Six months before, their other chocolate labrador, Murphy, ate Spider-Man pyjama bottoms belonging to son Joshua.

Student nurse Alison, who lives with husband Richard and children Megan, 12, Joshua, nine, and seven-year-old Katie, said: “Bailey is always eating my stuff and he is so sneaky with it. We knew he had eaten two socks and a pair of knickers that time.

“He just wasn’t being his bubbly self and playing with the children like he usually does, so we knew something was wrong.”

Just a week later, he once again deteriorated and was rushed back into the vets, who found he had swallowed another whole sock.