A PET dog survived almost unscathed after plunging 200ft down a mountainside.

Five-year-old black Labrador Caillie was scrambling to the summit of Helvellyn with her owner' s boyfriend when she slipped and plunged off Striding Edge.

Chris Batterby, 24, watched in horror as Caillie fell and came to a stop at the edge of Red Tarn, 200 feet below.

The building surveyor from York ran down a nearly sheer scree slope to find her still conscious, and called the mountain rescue on his mobile phone.

Patterdale team members stretchered her down East Gully.

Caillie was taken to a vet and treated for shock, but otherwise she suffered few injuries.

Mr Batterby, whose girlfriend Jessica McMichael was working at a camping shop in Ambleside that day, said: "I have been up the mountain several times before but never with Caillie.

"Caillie was brilliant, she is like a little mountain goat.

She was just behind me on the narrow section of Striding Edge when she got spooked by some people passing by.

She can be quite scatty and her rear end slipped over the edge and I just saw her fall to the bottom.

"I was screaming with shock; it was a horrible feeling.

"I was about to jump down after her when someone said I shouldn't because it was too dangerous.

Adrenalin had taken over.

I ran a little further along and jumped off down a scree slope.

It is something I shouldn't have done but I didn't think.

"When I got to the bottom she was fully conscious and even tried to start climbing back up."

Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team leader Dave Freeborn said four team members went up the mountain with half a stretcher while he and another member offered support from the base of Helvellyn.

"It is rather unusual for us to deal with an injured dog because they are usually very steady on their feet," said Mr Freeborn.

Tony Samson, the vet who treated Caillie, said her injuries were mostly superficial.

She was bruised and grazed, and painkillers were prescribed.

Mr Batterby said he did not think he would take Caillie up Striding Edge again, but he would certainly be taking her on walks around the Lake District.

He praised the rescue team as 'brilliant', and thanked Andy Brown of Warrington, who put his coat around Caillie after she had fallen and fed her chocolate.