RAIDERS beat and drugged a French mastiff dog after breaking into a home in Poole.

The burglars attacked the massive two-year-old hound, called Ronnie, as they ransacked the Rossmore Road bungalow.

They got into the kitchen through an open window over where the dog sleeps and owner Kirsty Barrett said she believed the red Dogue de Bordeaux had been doped and beaten. “The neighbours didn’t hear him bark and he would have gone mental and barked the place down,” she said.

“The dog is very nervous now and won’t leave my side,” she said. “He’s got a limp – they hurt him.

“Where he had been drugged, his eyes were all over the place.

“You always think to yourself no one’s going to come in with a great dog there, but they did,” said Kirsty, 36.

She and partner Martin White, 39, her sons Tommy, seven, and Charlie, six, and step-daughter Kayleigh White, 10, returned to the house on Sunday evening after a day out, to find the bungalow had been ransacked.

The boys’ TVs were stolen from their bedrooms, a pair of shoes taken, along with lager from the fridge.

“I’m still trying to work out what they have taken,” said Kirsty, who was taking the dog to the vet last night.

She said the boys were now so frightened, particularly Tommy, who has autism, that she has sent them to their grandparents in Kent.

Dorset Police are investigating the break-in, which was reported to them around 10.40pm, and appealing for witnesses or anyone who saw anything suspicious to contact them on 01202 222222 or free and anonymous Crimestoppers 0800 555111.