We got my dog Bonita from the pound. She was an all-black cocker spaniel-poodle mix. As a kid who was quite fond of reading, I spent that summer in the library reading up on everything I could find about cocker spaniels and poodles. One of the things that I remember reading about cocker spaniels is that they can be fond of the water. I remember getting really excited about that because I thought I was going to have a swimming buddy on my hands every time we went to a pool or the beach. However, there was one minor problem, my dog clearly didn’t inherit that water-loving gene. She was a total princess when it came to the water and didn’t like to swim.
While my dog might have been a bit of an oddball, generally-speaking cocker spaniels do like to swim. But for one very brave pup, that love of aquatic adventure got her into a little spot of trouble when she got carried out too far by the tide. Luckily for the dog, the RNLI, a UK-based emergency rescue service, was nearby to lend a hand. The RNLI had noticed the dog swimming about half a mile off the south coast of England, so they radioed a rescue team to help get the dog back to the safety of the shore.
In the rescue video, you can hear the rescue team calling to the lost dog saying, “Hello buddy! C’mere, you’re not supposed to be out this far.”
The managed to get her on board, grabbing her by the collar and getting her into the safety of the boat. The brown and white spaniel was very grateful for the assistance and immediately showed her affections to the crew by giving them all a cuddle. They were able to get her back to the shore where her worried owner was already pacing the shoreline wondering where she’d gotten to. The owner was extremely thankful, telling the rescuers, “I know you get it regular, but thanks.”
The rescue team had managed to film the entire thing on video, which they later posted to Facebook. They captioned the video, “Gone swimming, back soon…” And further in the description of the video, they wrote, “Rescued this swimming spaniel half a mile out to sea!”
RNLI also used the video as a chance to share some life-saving advice with other dog owners and they wrote on Facebook, “While you’re out catching the last few glimpses of summer, remember to use a lead and, if your pooch does get into trouble, dial 999 [in the UK] and ask for the coastguard.”
Check out the rescue below:
