A SMALL dog had a miraculous escape after falling 60 feet from a clifftop.

Three-year-old Bailey bolted from his owners and plunged from a cliff near Purbeck’s famous Old Harry Rocks.

One of his owners had waded waste-deep into the sea in a desperate bid to find him when a couple in a boat came to Bailey’s rescue.

Geoff and Sue Matthews had planned to take their two Jack Russell crosses, Bailey and Lucy, for an evening walk along the beach at Studland last Saturday.

But they decided at the last minute to take a walk along the cliffs instead.

Sue, a teacher at Bournemouth School for Girls, said Bailey suddenly went towards a hedge. “As we walked along, Bailey just suddenly disappeared,” she said.

“There was a gap and a sheer drop. I couldn’t even see him.

“My husband went back to the beach as I grabbed hold of Lucy.

“I walked down to the beach, all the way thinking ‘This is it, he’s dead. There’s no way he could survive that’.”

A couple who had been diving off a boat saw Bailey in the water, trying to scramble back up on to the rocks.

“They got their dinghy out and the chap rowed over and picked him up,” said Sue, from Branksome.

“My husband had his best jeans and new shoes on and was climbing over rocks waist deep in the water.”

Bailey is the latest among many dogs who have fallen from the cliffs.

“I’m not one of those people who says it should be fenced off. I hate that type of health and safety that says you shouldn’t do anything,” said Sue.

“People like me should be far more aware that the dog might have done this.

“I get the Echo every night and I’ve read reports of dogs falling off the cliff before.”

She thanked the divers from Southbourne for their help.

“I’m just so grateful to them,” said Sue.