A loyal dog stayed with her owner for almost two days after he fell to his death while hiking.

Daisy was found with the 64-year-old man's body in bush near the town of Eatonville, about 60 miles south of Seattle in Washington.

The pair went hiking on Wednesday but had not returned by dark, prompting the man's worried wife to call for help.

At daybreak on Thursday, sheriff's deputies began searching the Evans Creek area, about 25 miles from Eatonville.

The man had not left a note about where he was going but he had recently searched on the internet for geocaching locations in the area.


Geocaching is like a treasure hunt, where people use a GPS to find containers at specific locations marked by coordinates.

Image: If it had not been for Daisy's barking, searchers might not have found the man. Pic: Pierce County Sheriff's Department

On Thursday afternoon, the man's car was found parked by the road. Inside it was a list of geocache locations and searchers set out on foot to check each one.

An hour later searchers heard Daisy barking and they followed the sound to a steep embankment above the Mashel River.

They hiked through thick bush to reach Daisy and found her standing by the man, who has not been publicly identified.

She was later returned home by animal rescue officers.

The medical examiner concluded her owner had died from heart disease and the sheriff's department said he appeared to have fallen before his death.

They added: "This was a very sad end to a tough search, but we are incredibly proud of our deputies and the volunteers' efforts to find the missing man and return him to his family.

"Without the barking of his loyal companion Daisy, we never would have located the missing man. It was amazing."