A PEWSEY woman whose dogs went missing on Salisbury plain last week for over 24 hours has hailed the local community in their efforts to help rescue them.

Beverly Hams, of Manningford Abbots, endured a torrid Wednesday and Thursday as her two dogs, English Springer Milo and Labrador Spaniel cross Buster, went missing after being let off their leashes by her dog walker.

After Mrs Hams was informed of their disappearance at around 3pm last Wednesday, she and the dog walker stayed up until midnight searching for the young dogs across the plain, but to no avail.

Following many more hours of search, it was not until 3.30pm the next day before they finally found the exhausted, thirsty and hungry dogs unharmed in a wooded area by Upavon camp

In an effort to help find the dogs, the 61-year-old's daughter Emily, wrote a Facebook status on the Pewsey notice board, calling for help and they responded in a way that deeply touched Mrs Hams.

"It was a whirlwind 24 hours or so and something that I never want to go through again but I want to thank the local community for their amazing efforts to help out," she said.

"They went above and beyond the call of duty, going out into the dark, driving around in the cars, people phoning in with sightings and giving lots of advice from experts and tracking and finding dogs.

"From the bottom of our hearts, me and my husband Robert and daughter Emily, we want to thank everyone involved, especially Charles Barrowman for his help and letting us roam across his land to search. We are so grateful to everyone that helped."

Some of their efforts to find the dogs included putting up posters, leaving out their dog beds in an effort to attract them back to a scent they recognise and asking the army who were carrying out exercises on the plain.

"When I posted on the notice board that they had been found, there was more than 300 likes which is pretty impressive," she said.

"I am just so relieved it is all over. All of this has aged me about 20 years. I worried they were lost for good or had been run over but thankfully they are safe and well.

"Milo is only two and Buster is only five and we still had a long time left together. To stop this from happening again I have ordered a GPS tracker that can pick up where the dogs are on my Iphone but hopefully I will not need to use it much."