NEWTOWN St Boswells was alive with the sound of barks on Saturday as the village officially became dog-friendly.

Dog lovers from near and far descended on the community wing for a celebration of everything canine.

And the weekend launch was just the start, as a programme of events are planned to secure Newtown's place as Scotland's first dog-friendly village.

More than 60 dogs brought their owners along to Saturday's launch.

Organiser Veronica Lenartowicz was delighted with the attendance and revealed that more than 40 owners have now signed up to Dog Friendly Newtown.

She told the Border Telegraph: "This gives us a good basis to do much more in the future and I've already arranged a planning workshops for the end of the month.

"The workshop will be about putting forward ideas for more events involving dogs, their owners and the wider community.

"We're also going to have a dog and family fun day in August."

Greenside Vets ran a very busy stall giving people advice on canine health, handing out leaflets on subjects ranging from nutrition to behaviour problems and also injecting microchips as required under the new legislation.

Braw Puppy's Laura Aitken was present to enrol pooches for her training school.

And a number of local authority councillors came along to help register people for the council-backed Green Dog Walker scheme.

In addition to Greenside Vets offering microchipping at the launch, there were information stalls run by Braw Puppy dog-training school, Keep Scotland Beautiful, Scottish Borders Council and a few others

There was also be tea and biscuits, doggie treats and a free goody bag for owners and their dogs.

Newtown & Eildon Community Council chair Elaine Thornton-Nicol confirmed that event had been a great success.

She said: "It's great to see so many dogs, so many people and so much enthusiasm - it makes all the effort worthwhile.

"The entire Community Council has helped and we have had loads of other support, including all the local businesses in Newtown.

"Everybody is delighted because at last it's a really positive story about dogs.

"This is something other communities should definitely do, right across Scotland."

More events are already being planned and readers can find out more by going to Dog Friendly Newtown on Facebook.