SAN DIEGO (KABC) -- A couple visiting San Diego says they're "forever grateful" for the lifeguards who helped rescue their missing dog found in the ocean.

Alexis and Brandon were spending their Sunday watching football while visiting family and friends when their 5-year-old black Labrador mix, Sadie, bolted out the front door of the home they were staying in, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

Using an AirTag on Sadie's collar, the worried couple tracked the missing pup's movements to the coast.

Nearly two miles away in Ocean Beach, surfers alerted the lifeguard tower that a dog had been swept into the rip current near a jetty.

"The dog was in the Mission Bay channel and got swept out with the current of the channel," lifeguard Garrett Smerdon said in a video posted by

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