Has your dog ever been blown off a cliff?

[BiancasSilverCoat]

Jeremy Vine phone-in about it today.

Hopefully will be quite a short feature.

My friends spaniel ran off a cliff. Was on a cliff top walk off lead, was running about and misjudged the edge and went over. Horrid accident.

No but a pony kicked my sister into a briar patch at Manorbier.

Blown off - no.

Rolled off one voluntarily - yes. The utter idiot.

We live close to lots of cliffs and dogs are semi-regularly rescued but I think the majority have bounded over the edge after a seagull or a rabbit rather than actually been blown off.

I laughed…but I was judging from your tone that he was okay. I hope so…otherwise I take back my laugh reaction.

I never understand why people don’t keep their dog on a leash when they’re remotely close to a cliff edge. It’s irresponsible and the poor dog suffers for it.

It wasn’t a very high cliff, admittedly but he was perfectly fine. Had to get him out of the water.

He was lovely, but not the sharpest.

You need to ring Jeremy.

My friends spaniel ran off a cliff. Was on a cliff top walk off lead, was running about and misjudged the edge and went over. Horrid accident.

Poor dog. It wasn’t much of an accident though if they were foolish enough to allow it to run so close to a cliff when not on the lead.

More of an inevitability.

A cliff walk off lead should never ever be a sentence an owner with half a brain says. What idiots

Yes please ring Jeremy

My old english sheepdog chased a seagull off a small cliff in devon. landed on the beach below and almost gave sunbather a heart attack. dog was fine, was VERY stiff for a few days tho

Daft dog

I always keep my Jack Russell on a lead near cliffs, if she saw a rabbit she'd definitely go after it. When I hear stories about dogs going over cliffs or getting stuck in rabbit holes it's more than likely a JRT.

No, because I keep her on the lead near the cliffs. My house is literally on the edge of the coast to coast path, and more dog walkers than not, have them off the lead right on the cliffs. I'm constantly on edge! So many dogs (an their owners) have had to be rescued love the years, it's madness.

DDog doesn't go far or chase things but he is always on a short lead near cliffs etc and even then I don't go very near the edge. I have at times wanted to stick the DC on one too, even when they were older!

I sometimes feel like I should be on a bungee cord when I'm walking the cliffs, and I'm in my 30s! But, then I'm the kind of person who can fall over standing still on a flat surface.

Completely agree! I live near brean down, there are signs everywhere saying 'keep dogs on short leads' due to the cliff edges, but of course people know better so there have been numerous deaths of dogs falling over the edge

It sounds like they are exhausting their list of topics now.

Maybe next week;

'Have you ever had a biro surgically removed from your ear?'

'Should a law be introduced to make all hairdresser's chairs be replaced by functioning commodes?'

We've got a border terrier and she went down a fox hole, came out 20 minutes later, looking pleased as punch, just as I arrived with a shovel

My friends dog went over the edge at Beachy Head. Didn't survive. I've always kept my dogs on leads near cliffs regardless of wind.

Why would you not keep your dog on leash near cliffs?! It's the same thought I have when I see owners walking off leash dogs down footpaths by busy roads (which happens surprisingly frequently in London!) No matter how well trained the dog is, all it takes is for it to be spooked by a noise or another animal or catch something out of the corner of its eye to chase, and it's a horrible accident that the owner is entirely responsible for.

No, but he is an idiot so I keep him on the lead near heights.
When I was younger my dad and I took our dog to visit my Gran who lived in a 5th floor apartment. Dog wondered out to the balcony and nearly jumped over the rail - dad managed to grab his back legs.
And so my lifelong fear of balcones was born .

He always has the odd random phone in like this - I find them amusing in contrast to the more serious ones!

But no. Neither of my dogs have ever been blown off a cliff. But I would never let them off lead near a cliff edge anyway as both have high prey drives and would chase a bird without even thinking.

It does seem like a rather specific topic for a phone-in. They should generalise it to dogs who have gone over a cliff for any reason.

And perhaps they could generalise it further -- to dogs that have gone off of any high surface and suffered a vertical drop. For example, my dog chased a squirrel off an embankment once, peddled his legs in the air like Wile E. Coyote and fell about 15 feet onto the middle of a road. That would have made acceptable phone-in content i think.