The owner of the world's largest ever litter of Dalmatian pups had his work cut out when he took all 18 of them for a walk in the park.

The playful pups left Adam Morley well and truly tangled up as each was determined to explore every possible inch of the outside world.

It was the last time the spotty siblings spent the day together before they were split up and sent to new homes across the country.

Mr Morley described the logistics of walking so many pups as 'a nightmare'.

Adam Morley gets in a tangle as he takes all 18 of his Dalmatian puppies for a walk

Strike a pose: The inquisitive puppies have now been given new homes around the country

'I may as well have been walking 101 Dalmatians. Most of the dogs wanted to walk in different directions, while some of them just sat down and wouldn't budge.

'I got in a terrible tangle. It was like being in the middle of a spotty blizzard.'

One of the puppies with seven-year-old Thomas Morley just after the birth of the record-breaking litter

The puppies, who are now 11 weeks old, were born to record-breaking mother Button, aged three.

Mr Morley, 40, and wife Nicola, of Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, have kept just two of the litter for themselves -  Red Boy and Rudolph.

Mrs Morley, 31, said all 18 had been hand-reared for the first month of their lives and

She said: 'We were really sorry to see them go. We do miss them and I cried when they left.

'It was like handing over lots of babies because we hand-reared them for the first four weeks.

'It has been an amazing experience, but very tiring. The house seems really quiet now.'

Button, whose father was in the film 102 Dalmatians, broke the world record in December when she gave birth to her brood of 18, just a year after having a litter of 15 pups.

The average litter produces eight or nine puppies.

Each one of Button's babies weighed about 2lb and a 24-hour feeding rota had to be drawn up, with the Morleys' three sons pitching in to help.

'We've made sure they've had the best start in life,' said Mrs Morley.

'We took them for a thorough health check when they were 24 hours old and seven weeks old and they've all been properly weaned.

At home with the puppies: The Morley family hand-reared the puppies on a 24-hour rota

'They have all gone to loving family homes and we offer a contract stating that if there is any sort of problem they should be returned to us.

'We also ask that the puppies are never put in kennels but come and stay with us if their owners go away, so we're bound to see them all again soon anyway.'

The couple also took the pups for a hearing test at the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket, Suffolk, as Dalmatians are prone to hearing problems.

Just one of the animals was found to be deaf in one ear.

Julia Freeman, a neurology technician who spent four hours testing the puppies, said: 'Dalmatians do have a genetic predisposition to deafness, so it's quite common to see litters of little spotty dogs in our hearing clinic.

'We have found that one in five dalmatians is completely deaf in one or both ears, but just one single puppy of Button's 18 turned out to have hearing in only one ear - all the others were fine, which is a fantastic result.'

'Congenital deafness can be a problem for any dog with a predominantly white coat, and we strongly advise breeders to get puppies, especially from those 'at risk' breeds such as the dalmatian, properly tested before they go off to their new homes.'