Alan Titchmarsh’s Underdog To Superdog | Preview (Channel 5)

Meet the underdogs! They might be rescued, abandoned or just plain unruly, but these imperfect pooches all have one thing in common: they need a new purpose in life.

Hosted by Alan Titchmarsh, our underdogs will be trained by experts to do incredible jobs. Each has a vision for what these dogs could achieve; from finding people lost in the wilderness, to rescuing from water, or a film stunt dog. We join them for the highs and lows of the training process, but time is ticking… each of them must undergo a final challenge. Will these underdogs have it in them to become superdogs?

In the first episode, Alan Titchmarsh meets energetic Sprocker Spaniel Lychee and his owner, NHS nurse Corinthia. Lychee is a ‘Lockdown Dog’… and is completely uncontrollable off the lead as he follows new scents while on his walkies.

Fire investigation dog trainer Clive Gregory is challenged with training Lychee to put that nose to good use to see if he can detect the exact location of substances used to start fires.

In just four weeks, he will be put to the test at a fire training centre. Alan and Corinthia watch on as Clive and Lychee enter the wreckage from the fires; Can our underdog successfully sniff out where the fire accelerants are located and become a fire detection superdog?

Elsewhere, Freddie the poodle’s attention is all over the place due to the four members of the Rothman family’s lack of discipline. To calm down this poodle, Alan introduces dog trainer Lucy Heath to the family to work on Freddie’s focusing – with the challenge of turning him into a doggy model!

Lucy is well-versed in modelling having trained her own dogs appear in some famous commercials and TV shows. Freddie will not only need to behave under the bright lights and flashbulbs of a photography studio, but he will also need to look the part.

Will father and daughter John and Gabby be able to get their distracted dog to pose for the cameras, and will his portfolio be good enough to grace the cover of a leading dog magazine?

Alan Titchmarsh’s Underdog To Superdog begins Tuesday 4th February at 7pm on Channel 5.