Diving dog gets attention on the Web, but still needs a home

Diving dog gets attention on the Web, but still needs a home

Bunny the lab is making a splash on the Web. The rescue dog has been getting attention for a YouTube video that shows off her swimming skills fetching toys at the bottom of a 9-foot-deep pool.

Tami Stanley, who is fostering Bunny until she is adopted, noted that Bunny had a bad case of mange. “She had no hair around her eyes or on her ears,” Stanley told the local CBS station.

Since then, she has come a long way. Stanley first discovered Bunny’s skill when Stanley was in the pool holding a toy underwater. Bunny held her breath, swam by and snagged the toy.

“So then we went, ‘Hey! Look at this,’” Stanley told CBS. “So, then ... I held it with my toe on the bottom. She went right down and got it! And then we just moved it out.”

A YouTube video shows the pup swimming to the bottom of the pool for a rubber chicken, grabbing it with her mouth and paddling back to the surface.

“I’ve worked with many dogs and this was the first dog that showed me this,” Stanley told CBS. “For a dog to go underwater that far, on her own, and to be able to hold her breath—you know that’s a lot of pressure on the dog—it's very unusual.”

The diving dog still needs a home—and a pool—of her own. As of today, the Texas Labrador Retriever Rescue website lists the chocolate lab as up for adoption.

“Bunny is on the smaller side,” Petfinder states. “She loves to cuddle when she is not acting silly.” Or retrieving lost toys out of the pool.