A rescue dog terrified of water has become a deep-sea diver and allegedly beat the Guinness World Record for canine diving.
Bjorn Schembri, 35, from Malta, had an immediate connection with Misa when he visited his local animal rescue shelter in search of a four-legged companion.
“I didn’t choose Misa. She chose me. She didn’t want to leave me,” Schembri told Caters.
But he noticed an issue when he took her to the ocean — one of his favorite spots — to play around.
“I was carrying her myself when I first took her to the sea. She scratched all over my body she didn’t want to touch the seawater. She was so afraid,” he remembered.
He knew that this wouldn’t work well living on an island country in the Mediterranean Sea and became determined to help Misa conquer her fear.
“I thought, ‘I need to do something about this. Because if she’s going to be my dog, she needs to like the sea,’” he said.
The new dog owner continued playing with his pup near the water and allowed her to slowly become more accustomed to the water.
“Eventually, I was playing with her by the sea on the rocks, throwing her toys and she would go and get them and get back to me,” Schembri recounted.
“One day, she dropped a stone in a small puddle and to keep playing with me, she dived and got it. The puddle was really small, 20 cm, maybe. I was really shocked that she got her face in the water to get it.
“From that moment onwards, I was testing her by throwing the stones into deeper and deeper puddles, and she was going to get them,” he said.
Misa continued growing more comfortable and began testing the waters herself.
“She started jumping in the sea by herself, and then I was testing her to get it into deeper water,” Schembri said.
“Misa kept doing it year after year. Now she’s almost five years old. Five years of happiness.”
Coming a long way from her days of being terrified of the water, Misa has now allegedly beaten the Guinness World Record for dog scuba diving (13 feet), with Schembri claiming that Misa has swum nearly 15 feet under the water.
“It would be great for her to eventually get recognized because she dives so deep,” the proud pet owner said.
He’s even begun posting videos of the diving dog on TikTok, with several videos going viral. Schembri receives lots of comments condemning him for allowing Misa to dive as deep as she does, but he insists that she’s safe, healthy and happy.
“She likes doing it and no one’s forcing her. When we go to the beach, everyone gathers to watch her diving.”
