THERE was a happy ending after a dog was rescued from 80 metres down a cliff face and "miraculously" only suffered a minor injury.

West Bay coastguard was called to reports that a dog had gone missing near to the edge of the cliff just to the east of Seatown, in West Dorset at around 5.30pm on yesterday.

Eight rescue officers from the West Bay team, including the station officer and his deputy responded to the page and quickly made their way to the station. 

Officers from Lyme Regis also attended

Once at Seatown, the West Bay officers met with the dog's owners to establish where Winston the golden retriever was last seen, which was about one kilometre east of Seatown. 

Two officers were deployed to the beach to see if they could see the dog from below while an edge safety officer was harnessed, roped and deployed to the edge of the cliff to see if he could get a visual on the dog from above.

Winston was spotted about 80 metres down the face of the cliff, lying in a bramble thicket on the lower levels.

As the area was not safely accessible from the beach, a technical rope rescue was required.

The cliff technician was then lowered the 80 metres down to Winston who was said to be in a "sombre mood" nursing an injury to his front paw but "miraculously" had no obvious further injuries. 

Winston was then carefully lifted in to a dog rescue bag and secured ready for recovery. 

The cliff technician and Winston were winched back up to the top of the cliff where he was reunited with his grateful owners before being taken to the local vets for a full check-up. 

The coastguard said that the incident had a very happy outcome and the dog's owners did the right thing by calling them.