An animal lover is preparing to travel to South Korea to create a £77,000 DNA clone of his dearly departed pooch after it died last month.

Dog-mad Richard Remde, 46, from West Yorkshire, hit headlines in 2016 after they cloned their boxer Dylan to create two new boxer dog puppies in a procedure costing £67,000.

As Mr Remde's beloved cocker spaniel Max began to deteriorate in old age - he decided he wanted to clone him.

Then, when Max died at the age of 19, Mr Remde made sure to retain some cells that would be needed to recreate the animal who had been his first ever pet.

The pooch's DNA was extracted by a specialist vet before he jetted out to South Korea with the sample on ice to be stored until ready for the procedure.

Laura Jacques with Dylan the boxer who died from a brain tumor (
Image:
ITV/Real Stories with Ranvir Singh/PA)

Mr Remde, who has two daughters from a previous marriage, said: "Max had been with me through everything.

"I'd had family pets as I'd grown up but Max was my first pet, he has seen me go through becoming a father, buying homes and divorce, he has always been by my side.

"I wasn't definitely sure this is what I wanted to do, but now I know I want to keep a bit of Max with us."

Mr Remde and his partner Laura Jacques, 33, had nine dogs including Max at their home in Silsden, West Yorkshire.

The couple currently have a bull Mastiff called Harvey, a golden retriever called Chloe, two shih tzus called Dinky and Alfie and two boxer clones called Chance and Shadow, created from their dead predecessor Dylan.

They have one of the surrogate mums called Sassie, with the other called Hope, having died - and a mixed breed dog they are raising after rescuing it on a trip to Korea, with a view to rehoming.

Max's DNA cloning would be the second time Mr Remde undertook the procedure, having first undertaken when Laura's dog Dylan died aged eight in May 2015.

Unable to watch Laura's grief, he remembered an article about cloning and got in touch with Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in Seoul, South Korea.

Richard and Laura first cloned boxer Dylan in 2015 and will now clone cocker spaniel Max in time for Christmas (
Image:
ITV)

Laura then took her own samples of DNA, using a kit she purchased from Boots, to take biopsies from Dylan's stomach and rushed these to South Korea.

These were then used to create cloned puppies through a process called "somatic cell nuclear transfer".

The process starts with an egg harvested from a donor dog on heat, using a high-powered microscope scientists poke a microhole in the egg and remove the nucleus - the DNA.

They then replace the nucleus with a cell from the dog being cloned.

The hybrid egg is blasted with electricity to fuse the cells and begin cell division, and the embryo is implanted in a surrogate dog’s womb.

The surrogates are dogs rescued from centres across South Korea - they are usually of mixed breed.

Richard and Laura picking up their new pets Shadow and Chance created using a £67,000 cloning process from boxer Dylan who died from a brain tumour (
Image:
PA)

Then, if the pregnancy is successful, an exact replica puppy of the deceased pet will be born around 60 days later - the length of a canine pregnancy.

A few months after that, the puppy is flown to the UK for a ‘cloning reunion’ with the owner of the original dog.

Now, Mr Remde is set to head out to Korea to choose his own surrogate mum.

The father-of-two said: "I am hoping to choose a dog that I can help.

Laura Jacques with Shadow and Chance - who were created via a cloning process (
Image:
ITV/Real Stories with Ranvir Singh/PA)

"We will be bringing the surrogate dog home with us and we will look after her too, just like we did with Chance and Shadow's surrogates."

He can then expect to have his cloned Max pup home by Christmas.

Luckily for Richard this procedure will only incur his own expenses as he is now an ambassador for the company and is responsible for the English-speaking customers of the company in the west, for which he set up Dog Cloning UK.

Richard said Sooam Biotech was a non-profit organisation that used cloning as a way of raising money for research into diseases with hereditary links such as Alzheimer’s and cancer, and its work cloning endangered animal species.

He said: "The dog cloning is very popular with celebrities lining up to clone their dogs.

"We are a nation of animal lovers and cherish our dogs."