Dog missing for 5 weeks found on Vancouver Island

After more than a month of searching on Vancouver Island, a beloved dog that's trained to help its owner with her diabetes was located safe.

Daisy the Australian shepherd was found on Friday on a floating dock in Mill Bay, B.C.

The dog had been missing since May 12 after she went on a walk with her owner, Ciara Cownden, around Shawnigan Lake.

During the walk, Daisy managed to slip out of her GPS collar at the same time that something startled her, causing her to run into the woods.

The animal recovery group FLED helped search for the dog, with scattered reports of Daisy being sighted in the area.

On Friday, Daisy was found on the dock and was brought to a veterinarian. The dog spent the night in vet care and had lost about eight pounds, but is otherwise fine.

"[Searchers] just moved into the area, they were looking out on the dock there that was floating, and it was Daisy," said Gary Shade, co-founder of FLED.

"She'd fallen asleep," he told CTV News. "They figured the tide had come in and picked the dock up and was taking it out."

A volunteer who was nearby dove into the water and swam to the dock to retrieve Daisy.

"Once she saw Ciara, the owner, she just went all over, just ballistic," said Shade. "Just happy."

Ciara Cownden is shown. (CTV News)

Cownden has Type 1 diabetes and Daisy has been trained to help with tasks in case of an emergency, such as getting Cownden her blood sugar monitoring device, or retrieving a juice box if her blood sugar levels suddenly drop.

Daisy also helps with preventing her owner from panicking.

FLED says the search for Daisy was one of the hardest ones the group has worked on, since there were few reported sightings over the five weeks she had been missing.