These pictures show the moment a mountain rescue team were called out – to save a St Bernard mountain rescue dog.
Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team was scrambled after the dog, named Daisy, collapsed while walking up the highest mountain in England with her owners.
They climbed Scafell Pike in Cumbria in search of the poorly pooch, before putting her onto a stretcher and carrying her all the way down.
When they reached the bottom, Daisy was taken home and quickly recovered from her ordeal, which happened on Friday, July 24.
A spokesperson said: “Last night Cumbria Police contacted us about a St Bernard dog, Daisy, who had collapsed whilst descending from the summit of Scafell Pike.
“Our members didn’t need to think twice about mobilising and deploying to help retrieve Daisy.
“Displaying signs of pain in her rear legs and refusing to move, Daisy’s owners were able to keep her well hydrated and fed until team members were able to get on scene with a stretcher.
“In advance of getting on location, advice had been sought from several local vets regarding pain relief, possible issues specific to that breed of dog and how best to handle them in such stressful situations.
“On reaching their location, team members carefully introduced themselves to Daisy so as not to cause any additional distress.
“With the help of a treat or two members were able to assess her condition and administer analgesia for the pain.
“A few different tactics needed to be tried until both Daisy and her stretcher bearers were all satisfied and progress down-hill could be made. “
The St Bernard breed is very large, and they are used as working dogs in the western Alps in Italy and Switzerland.
They were originally bred for rescue by the hospice of the Great St Bernard Pass on the Italian-Swiss border.
The hospice acquired its first dogs between 1660 and 1670, and since then the breed has become famous through tales of alpine rescues.
The spokesperson continued: “It had become quickly apparent that Daisy’s cooperation was going to be essential if we were to make progress as Daisy made sure we knew that if she didn’t want to do something, she wasn’t going to do it.
“However, after a little persuasion and a bit of arranging the stretcher to become dog friendly and of course plenty more treats, the 55kg Daisy very quickly settled down with her chin resting on the head guard, having realised that we were trying to help her.
“From there on, apart from the odd little adjustment, the evacuation was found to be not that much different to a normal adult evacuation which is of course is the bread and butter of our team, which we have done hundreds of times before.
“The adorable Daisy who unfortunately had a hard start in life until she was “rescued” by her current owners a few months ago, has since been reported to have had a good night’s sleep, snoring a little louder than normal, but back to her usual high spirits this morning.
“She apparently feels a bit guilty and slightly embarrassed about letting down the image of her cousins bouncing across the Alpine snows with barrels of brandy around their necks.”
