Dog rescued off English coast after being blown out to sea in inflatable kayak

A shaggy dog named Bruce has been rescued from the North Sea after being blown away in an inflatable kayak.

Bruce was pulled onto a tour boat skippered by Australian Jimmy Reid near the Farne Islands, off the coast of England. 

"You are the goodest of boys," Mr Reid said as he patted Bruce.

Mr Reid told the ABC from Northumberland that he had answered a call from the coastguard about a missing dog.

Bruce was found more than 4 kilometres offshore.

"We went to retrieve the dog using some man-overboard equipment that's normally just meant for people, so it didn't really work with the dog, unfortunately," Mr Reid said.

A blog post on the tour operator's website said the rescue was touch and go.

"[Crew member] Aaron lunged forward, grabbing the dog by the scruff of its neck as it disappeared beneath the water," it said.

"The force nearly pulled him overboard. His body slipped over the edge of the vessel, with only one foot hooked around the doorway keeping him attached to the boat.

"Seeing the danger immediately, Jimmy grabbed hold of Aaron's leg.

"For a few heart-stopping seconds, man, dog and rescuer were all hanging precariously above the sea."

But the two men managed to haul the wet, exhausted dog aboard.

Earlier in the day, Bruce's owner had been kayaking with his dog when a wind "whipped up with the change of tide and caught them off-guard", Mr Reid said.

"So the kayak got blown away and the owner actually tried to make a swim after the dog, realised that he wasn't catching up to the kayak and did the right thing, turned around and called back for help," he said.

Mr Reid said the water temperature was about 8 degrees Celsius and that Bruce had been floating for about two hours.

"So he's absolutely hypothermic, he was shivering a bit," he said.

"We got him onboard and wrapped him up in towels and looked after him. He perked up within the next 30 minutes or so.

"By the time we got him back ashore, he was ready to go."

Looking for a blue and white kayak on blue and white water was like "looking for a needle in a haystack", Mr Reid said.

"Finding it in the first place was amazing and being able to get him back healthy and happy to people who obviously loved and cared for him was brilliant," he said.