A 10lb, fluffy Pomeranian dog called Sammy is at the centre of a bitter $500,000 lawsuit。

One New Yorker who used his photogenic dog to create a blog dubbed "Sammy and the City" is now dragging his estranged girlfriend to court claiming she stole the lucrative website。

Scott Smith, 43, his ex-girlfriend Anna Camara, 44, and Smith's sister, Jessica, launched the site last year, posting photos and videos of Sammy at different landmarks in New York。

The site soon became an online sensation, gaining an impressive following of 40,000 visitors a month keen to check in on Sammy's exploits. The 7-year-old canine attracted more than 51,000 followers on Instagram, the photo-sharing app, as well as more than 10,000 fans on Facebook and Twitter。

After their relationship broke down Smith and Camara continued to work on the expanding business together with Camara in charge of photography, reported the New York Post。

However, in April, Camara shut her ex-boyfriend out of the project, listing herself as the sole owner in an attempt to trademark the business name, Smith claims in court papers。

She allegedly changed online passwords and IDs to lock Smith out of the site so he could not add new content. Last week Smith landed Camara with a $500,000 lawsuit for scuppering their website。

"This is my dog, this is my project, and not one bit of it is in my name,"Smith told the New York Post。

In the lawsuit filed at the Manhattan Supreme Court, Smith alleges that Camara stole his iPad, which he used to upload pictures of Sammy, and returned it with changed passwords。

This particular incident led to a scuffle where Smith tried to snatch Camara's phone. Smith ended up in jail on a petty larceny charge, the Post reported。

Smith now hopes to re-launch his pooch's career with a new website called Everybody Loves Sammy and keeps fans happy with a Facebook page, Sammy and the World. He conceded that his ex-girlfriend is a "brilliant" photographer but said she "lacks business ethics". Camara denied the allegations to the New York Post。