A DOG warden is going under cover to hound irresponsible owners and their pets off a popular canal bank.

Stephen Wood today warned dog walkers who allow their animals to foul the area that he will be hot on their heels -- and they won't know he's there because he will be in disguise.

The Hyndburn warden has revealed that he will be dressing as a jogger, walker, and even a fisherman in an effort to catch the messy culprits and slap a fine on them.

Towpaths along the Leeds and Liverpool canal in Rishton and Clayton-le-Moors, owned by British Waterways, were previously out of bounds for the warden and the council's environmental health officers.

Hyndburn Council last week extended its bylaws to the canal towpath, the first council in Lancashire to do so on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

So dog walkers breaking the rules could be in for their very own nasty surprise.

Mr Wood said: "We are going to go along the canal and start issuing fixed penalties.

"People tend to know my face, so one day I will be going as a dog walker, another day as a fisherman, another day I will be a jogger. I will be in various disguises." Councils can now treat towpaths like ordinary footpaths in a town, and owners can now be fined £50 on the spot. If they fail to pay up they could face being taken to court where the maximum fine is £1,000. Mr Wood, along with community wardens and the police, will have the power to issue the fines.

Mr Wood has issued 18 fixed penalty notices since January, and has warned that a dog warden does not work nine to five hours, so no time is a safe time to let your dog foul.

He said: "I could be on the canal at six in the morning, or ten at night. There are no set times, and there is no time that is safe.

"We are trying to clean the canal up to stop dog fouling. We get quite a lot of tourists coming through on canal barges, and we don't want them to see Hyndburn as a dog toilet.

"We can put a person in Rishton, and have them walk all the way through to Clayton. That's the whole of Hyndburn covered."

Councillor Ann Scaife, Rishton representative and cabinet member for the environment, said: "If people like Steve are around, dog owners will pick up the poo. What I call irresponsible is when people pick up the poo and chuck it in the bushes. They should pick it up and if there's not a bin, take it home -- people take babies' nappies home, don't they?