Dog owners have been urged not to jump into the water if their pet gets in distress after a man had to be rescued from Southwold Harbour.

The advice follows an incident at the harbour on Thursday, August 27, when a man had jumped into the water to save his dog Ruby, who had fallen in.

A family member had deployed a life ring to help prevent the person from being swept out to sea with the outgoing tide.

The Southwold RNLI were called to the scene to help the pair after Humberside Coastguard were alerted to the situation.

On arrival, crews found the man and Ruby in the water.

In a Facebook post, a spokesman for Southwold RNLI said: “[We were] paged by Humber coastguard to a person in water within the harbour.

“Once on scene [the person] was found to be with his dog who had fallen into the river on an outgoing tide.

“A family member had deployed a life ring to which they were hanging onto to avoid being swept out to sea.”

Crews rescued the pair from the water, who were said to be shaken and cold, although they had suffered no other injuries.

Both the man and Ruby were left in the care of the ambulance service.

Speaking later, coxswain Alan Scoggins said pet owners should not jump in to help animals should they fall into the water and should instead call the emergency services.

Mr Scoggins said: “The best thing to do is call the emergency services as dogs will nearly always self recover, it may be a hard thing to looking at your pet in distress but this is the best advice we give.”

Mr Scoggins added fencing on the Walberswick side of the harbour has helped prevent similar incidents happening.

He said: “The fencing put up on the Walberswick side of the harbour certainly has helped and there are plans to extend this.”

It is the second time this month that lifeboat crews have had to rescue people in the water, with the Southwold RNLI again being called out to help three people in distress on the Walberswick side of the river.

The three people had been assisted by a paddle boarder who helped to keep them afloat before crews arrived.

The trio were all left shaken following the ordeal, although did not suffer any injuries and were returned to the Walberswick pier.