KEEP your dogs on a lead, the coastguard has urged, after a rotweiller crossbreed fell to its death near Old Harry Rocks.

The coastguard said it has this year dealt with ‘at least half a dozen cases’ of dogs running over the cliff edge.

The pet, called Tara, was reported missing at around 3.15pm on Saturday and then later found dead by Swanage RNLI at Handfast Point.

The owner, from Poole, had gone home by the time it was found and she did not want it recovered.

A spokesman for the Coastguard said: “You can’t rely on dogs 100 per cent of the time to do as they are told.

“In a real danger area like this, you should keep them on a lead.

“If there’s a problem or a fall, don’t go close to the cliff and put yourself at risk no matter how much you want to see what’s happened.

“We have had at least half a dozen cases this year at Handfast. Quite a few survive, which is quite amazing.”

In August, Breeze the gordon setter, whose owners were a Lyndhurst couple, survived a 40ft fall near the same spot.

In July, three-year-old Bailey the jack russell from Branksome in Poole survived a 60ft fall, and Tommy the collie had a lucky escape after an 80ft plunge in March.

• A CLIMBER suffered a broken leg after several of his safety pegs came out of the rock when he fell from a Dorset cliff.

The 40-year-old from Henley on Thames was airlifted to Poole Hospital by Portland Coastguard helicopter after the accident near Anvil Point, south of Swanage, at around 10.45am yesterday.

He was almost at the top of a popular climb called Subluminal when he fell.