Standing just seven inches tall, 18 ins long, and weighing only 19lbs (8.5kg), little Bessie the sausage dog is not what you would describe as the average crime-fighting canine.

But following a spell as a star of the small screen, brave Bessie has finally found her true calling as Ipswich’s greatest guard dog, after she doggedly-defended her family from a burglar who chose the wrong house to break into.

Nine-year-old Bessie the miniature long-haired dachshund, was staying at Patrice Hopgood’s house in Princethorpe Road, Ipswich, when a burglar attempted to break in through a window of the bungalow, at around 5am on Monday.

The pet dashed to the window and barked at the bemused burglar, waking up Patrice who had been asleep and was unaware of the attempted intrusion.

Patrice followed the noise of the chaos to discover the window fully open, and the net curtain on the floor, but the intruder didn’t stay long in the property, apparently deciding to leave after Bessie’s intervention.

“I am very proud of her – she’s amazing,” Patrice, 64, said.

“I have got my own dog but he is old and didn’t realise what was going on.”

Bessie never normally stays at Patrice’s home, and was only being dog-sat for owner Andi Hopgood, Patrice’s daughter, when her services were called for.

Andi, a professional musician and Ipswich borough councillor, said: “I usually have her at mine, but this day she wasn’t, my mum was dog-sitting – it was clearly the right day!”

But despite Bessie’s small stature, Andi believes she would make a brilliant guard dog.

“I have always said she would make a good guard dog,” Andi said. “She has got a big, manly bark on her and she’s very feisty.

“But I am so proud of her, she’s a little hero!”

Unusually, Bessie’s crime-fighting efforts are not the first time that she has gained attention, having previously made the spotlight with an appearance on the television show Harry Hill’s TV Burp.

Bessie appeared on the show in 2010 sporting a hand-knitted green and white jumper made by Andi, for the show’s reality segment called the K-Factor, which attempted to find the nation’s best knitted items.

“Bessie was the only dog on there in her hand-knitted jumper, all the others were knitted characters, but Harry Hill loved her and we reached the finals,” Andi said.

Now, after an eventful time of defying would-be burglars and attention from the media, Bessie has quietly returned to her normal routine – until her next adventure.