A Pembrokeshire dog lover has invented a high-tech way of feeding his pet pooch – over the internet via Twitter.

Computer buff Nat Morris, aged 30, has rigged up a system to give his pet Toby a “tweet treat” by sending him a message over the popular social networking site.

Border terrier Toby gets a snack from an automated food dispenser whenever Nat sends a message to “@FeedToby”.

IT consultant Nat spends a lot of time working away from home in Milford Haven and isn’t always able to feed Border Terrier Toby by hand.

But using his new invention he is able to send his dog a treat from anywhere in the world.

Nat said: “Toby absolutely loves it.

At first he didn’t know what was going on.

“Now he sits underneath, wagging his tail and waiting for the treats to drop.”

Nat loads up the feeder with crushed dog biscuits – but not too much in case four-year-old Toby gets too many messages.

When a comment is received the mechanism drops out a helping of crushed up dog biscuits.

And Nat has even rigged up an online camera so he can see Toby enjoying the food at his home.

Nat is considering patenting his system but one problem is that friends and family have been amazed with the “Tweet treat” dispenser.

They too have been joining in to send Tweets to Toby – so Nat has had to introduce restrictions to make sure Toby doesn’t turn into Tubby.

Nat added: “People have been sending him food at all hours of the day – so I had to limit it to between 9am and 9pm.

“I’m thinking of doing an updated version which features a scale to weigh him before he is fed just to make sure he’s not putting on too much puppy fat.”