Sports fans enjoyed the efforts of human athletes in the Rio Olympics – now it’s time for the canine version.

It all began when Sally Grist said she’d sponsor a friend £1 for every ball her dog found.

Mrs Grist, from St Mary’s Island, coughed up for every ball Sarah Bennett’s Lakeland terrier Waffle found while out walking.

Waffle has her own Facebook page and as the word spread, and she collected more balls, more people started sponsoring her, raised £4,500 for Terrier SOS, a charity which works in the UK and Europe to rehome abandoned and neglected terriers.

The following year Mrs Grist, 47, who has her own Lakeland terrier, called Barley, opened up the challenge to other dogs and set up a doggy treasure hunt.

The self-employed artist said: “We sent everyone a list of 20 items they had to find, things you could find in any country we had a fence, a red bicycle and some tricky things too like a celebrity, your vet, that sort of thing.

“We had all these fantastic photos sent in of dogs in these funny positions, we had dogs in fire engines and riding bicycles.”

The treasure hunt raised £7,500 and this year, it has an Olympic theme and has been dubbed the doglympics

“We picked five events because of the five Olympic rings,” said Mrs Grist

“We’ve got things like the dogathlon and the dognastics, it’s just dogs doing silly things.

“The idea is just to take pictures of these events and send them in, it’s just so funny to see how far and wide it’s spread.

“Everyone is paying a little bit to Terrier SOS and we’ve just passed the £1,000 mark and we’ve been running it now for just over a week.”

So far, dogs from 30 countries have taken part in the challenge including pooches from Sweden and America.

On the group’s Facebook page competitors have posted pictures of their pets kayaking, trying their paws at rhythmic gymnastics with a ribbon, and synchronised sitting.

To find out more and to see some of the pictures, visit www.facebook.com/groups/BorleeHQ, or to donate visit www.youcaring.com/terrier-sos-611648.