Ted, a 12 stone, two year old Newfoundland dog from Coventry has had a lucky escape after falling off a 150ft cliff in Cornwall.
Ted was on a walk with his family when he disappeared off the edge of a cliff in Morwenstow, near Bude.
He fell onto a ledge above jagged rocks and was stranded for four hours until he was saved by a 14-strong cliff rescue team.
Luckily, Ted survived the ordeal with nothing more than a grazed nose.
Ted’s owner, 41 year old Lee Barnett, who owns a hairdressers in Coventry, said: “Ted was ten feet away from the path when he decided to go for it.”
The family immediately thought that their beloved dog had died but when they peered over the cliff they could see him on the ledge. Lee’s partner, Gemma Richens, rushed to get help at a nearby tea room.
Their children Zak, 12, Xanthe, seven, and Tate, five could only wait helplessly as Lee tried to keep Ted calm.
He said: “I was hanging over the edge trying to keep him calm while the children stayed on the path.
“I kept my balance by hanging on to clumps of heather.
“It was very lucky heather because if it had given way I would have gone over too.
“For the first hour he did not move, he was just yelping, and blood was coming from his mouth, but by the time the rescue people arrived he was on his feet.”
The rescue took over three hours and 14 people were needed to save Ted.
Lee said: “I think his ego has been bruised at bit, but other than that he just has a scrape on his nose. It’s remarkable and bizarre.
“If he had missed the ledge he would have gone down onto the rocks. He is very lucky to be alive.
“I just can’t praise what these guys did enough. It was absolutely fantastic. They said they had never rescued a dog like this and probably never will again.”
A spokesman for Falmouth Coastguard said: “The initial report came in of a dog trapped on cliffs, but when the teams arrived it became clear this was an unusually large dog – it weighed 12 stone and was really the size of a small pony.
“It was clearly a valiant effort. You really wouldn’t want that falling on somebody’s head.”