A WELLWOOD collie has got her unusual skill down to a 'tee' – finding more than 51,000 golf balls over the last 12 years! 

Owner Barry Gell, 80, got Jess from a kennel in 2005 and since training her to pick up golf balls, she hasn't stopped. 

Barry is a keen golfer but the collie cross doesn't go anywhere near the balls that are in play.

Barry told the Press: "She's made me a fortune! The trouble is that I've got more golf balls than I've ever needed. 

"It only took me three days to train her. I kept throwing a ball and telling her to get it and the next morning I did the same thing. But while she was going to fetch the ball I threw another one. 

"She then started going to find the other one she didn't see me throw. By the third day she was digging for balls and finding ones that must have been there for about 10 or 15 years! 

"She's even found golf balls in five inches of snow! I think it must be the smell of them that helps her find where they are."

Barry has only ever heard one other dog having the same talents as Jess, who had collected 19,000 golf balls, but by this point the West Fife collie had found 26,000.

Barry keeps her finds documented in his detailed diaries and passes on Jess' golf balls to family and friends and junior and senior members at Canmore Golf Club. 

Barry added: "Jess is a brilliant companion. If a dog snaps at her she sends them off and she knows exactly who all the people who have biscuits are when we go for walks! When I play at Canmore, people bring her turkey sandwiches, she's got more friends than me! 

"Oh she's definitely different!"