Curious pup gets in a 'hole' lot of trouble

The Tibetan spaniel, whose name has not been released, was rescued by Rural Fire Service and Fire and Rescue crews from Bawley Point, Ulladulla, and Kioloa after responding to the incident just before 1pm.

A Tibetan spaniel is a small, companion dog, of a similar size and shape to a Pomeranian.

A spokeswoman from Bawley Point RFS said the owners called Triple 0 shortly after their dog went missing.

"The dog had run off into the bush, smelt something in there, and gone down into the rabbit hole," she said.

"She was stuck in there, and we had to use a thermal imaging camera to find her."

The spokeswoman said the rescue remained complex even after they had located the dog.

"There were blackberry bushes all around us, so a lot of us were cutting that back," she said.

"We had one of our smaller girls get her shoulders down into the hole and use an animal-control pole to get her out.

"It was a combined effort from the crews, but the initial find with the thermal camera was brilliant."

She said the owners of the dog "weren't too bad" considering the circumstances.

"It was a considerable amount of time (the dog was stuck), so there was obviously some worry," the spokeswoman said.

"If we didn't have the support there from Fire and Rescue, that dog wouldn't have lasted.

"It was such an overwhelming moment when the dog was pulled out of the hole - it was a nice result."