The owners of a dog which jumped off a cliff over the festive period whilst chasing a bird have thanked crew members of Tenby RNLI and the local coastgaurd team after helping to assist the pooch back to land safely.

The all-weather lifeboat was requested to launch shortly before 3.30 pm on Saturday, December 30, following a report from a concerned member of the public that his dog had gone over the cliff at Barafundle.

Bronte the spaniel fell 30 metres into the rough sea, and the lifeboat was soon on the water and the volunteer crew made best speed to the scene, some 11 miles west of Tenby.

As the lifeboat was within a few hundred metres of Barafundle, the Coastguard, who were concerned people may enter the sea, received a further call stating that the owner had managed to coax the dog to swim back around to Barafundle beach and that both the dog and owner were now safe and well ashore.

The lifeboat was then stood down and returned to station, arriving at 4.20 pm.

On New Year’s Day, the grateful dog owners returned to the lifeboat station to say thank you to the RNLI crew and Tenby Coastguard who turned out to help save their spaniel - who it turns out ran quite a distance to the edge of the cliff before launching itself into mid-air chasing a bird.

They said their pet was a little more clingy last night, but were happy to report that he was fine now.