Dog accidentally reverses fisherman's campervan into lake

A startling piece of video captures the moment a fisherman’s pet dalmation accidentally steps on the gear shift of his campervan, sending the vehicle rolling backwards into a lake.

Eric Jackson, of Tennessee in the US, was standing on the back of his recreational vehicle, trying to release his boat into a Texas lake so he could start practising for an upcoming fishing competition.

Suddenly, the reverse lights come on and the campervan starts to move backwards.

Mr Jackson can be seen jumping off his boat and running around to try to stop the vehicle as bystanders rush to help.

The man’s two-year-old dog, Bodi, had managed to put his paw on the brake, sending the 11-metre-long van into reverse.

“By the time I got my foot on the brake, the back wheels were floating,” Mr Jackson told US news outlet KBMT-TV.

Posting the video to his Facebook page, the professional fisherman wrote: “This is not how the day was supposed to go … a poor transmission design, combined with a puppy dog (Bodi) who wanted to see me out the window and stepped on the reverse button, turned the day and the RV into a mess!”

The professional fisherman’s other dog, another dalmation called Rocksey, was sitting in the passenger seat as events unfolded.

No humans or animals were injured during the incident, KBMT-TV reports.

However, Mr Jackson said in his Facebook post that his campervan “will never leave Texas from what I can tell … Just about everything in it is ruined and the water damage to the floors and walls is starting to become an issue.

“We are trying to dry it out and salvage it … stay tuned.”