A tubby dog was in the limelight last week when he appeared on a TV show about overweight pets – halfway through a challenge to beat the bulge.

Staffordshire bull terrier Beetlejuice, from Bethnal Green, has shed more than two kilograms from his starting weight of 44.3kg (seven stone) in the three months since the start of his diet.

But he remains a whopping 12kg off his ideal weight of 30kg, despite joining an animal slimming contest run by pets charity PDSA.

Beetlejuice has now appeared on ITV1’s The Alan Titchmarsh Show to draw attention to the plight of fat pets.

Owner Margaret Cox said: “Beetlejuice is doing really well. So far he’s lost 3cm off his waist and we’ve had to tighten his collar by three holes so he’s definitely losing weight!

“We could see he was struggling so we stopped feeding him as many treats but he didn’t lose as much weight as we hoped.”

He now has another three months to vie for the title of PDSA’s Pet Fit Club Champion.