AN adventurous Labrador was rescued after making a bid to swim to Caldey Island on Tuesday (August 11).

Lucky Lola was spotted by RNLI lifeguards but the intrepid pooch had already swam about 800m from Tenby South Beach before she was caught up with.

The dog went missing at about noon on Tuesday, 11 August from the Whiteback area of the beach, which is about a mile away from the main RNLI beach lifeguard unit.

RNLI lifeguard Sydney Vickery, who was carrying out a safety patrol in the busy section of beach, was alerted by a member of the public to missing Lola when they saw a dog in the water about 300m off shore.

Sydney called for assistance and fellow RNLI lifeguard Angelo Fecci immediately joined her from the beach unit on a quad.

Lola was nowhere to be seen so Angelo entered the water to begin a search on a rescue board, while a binocular search was undertaken from the beach unit to guide him.

Sydney saw the dog was now about 500m out and heading towards Caldey Island, so the charity’s lifeguards contacted HM Coastguard for assistance. The coastguard put out an all ships call for any boats in the area to assist in the search.

Three boats and Angelo on the rescue board continued the search, but Lola kept disappearing from view, until she was spotted about 800m from the shore.

A boat which had helped in the search found her and, despite some resistance from Lola, the crew managed to bring her safely on board.

By this time Lola’s owners had made themselves known to lifeguard Sydney on the shore. They were so relieved when their pet was brought back safely to the beach they made a generous on-the-spot donation to the RNLI.

RNLI lifeguard supervisor Adam Pitman said: “Keeping people safe is the main focus for our highly trained lifeguards, but the team on Tenby south beach were more than happy to help bring Lola back safely to her owners.

“Our lifeguards don't do their work for recognition, but the dog owners' kind donation will help the charity continue to save lives at sea.”

The RNLI charity is completely separate from the Coastguard and independent of Government and 94% of its income comes from donations.

It costs £847 to fully equip each RNLI lifeguard and annual training costs another £535 per lifeguard. There are more than 1,100 RNLI lifeguards on more than 220 beaches across the UK and Channel Islands.

RNLI lifeguards are providing a daily safety service at Amroth, Saundersfoot, Tenby north, Tenby south, Tenby Castle, Freshwater West, Broad Haven, Nolton Haven, Newgale south, Newgale north, Whitesands Newport and Poppit Sands beaches, issuing safety advice and assistance throughout the school holidays between 10am and 6pm.

There is also RNLI lifeguard cover at Pembrey and Pendine.