The owner of a tiny dog whose 13-storey tightrope walk ended in a dramatic three-hour rescue operation has described the result as “unbelievable”.

Alex Dobrin and his 18-year-old son Jake, who had been caring for Ellbie the Jack Russell while Alex holidayed in Thailand, told Sunrise the ordeal began when the dog vanished without a trace.

Jake said he returned home to Dee Why, in Sydney’s north, to find Ellbie missing, prompting a neighbourhood search and flyers offering a reward.

The two-year-old had slipped through a gap on the family’s balcony, making her way onto an external ledge.

For more than 48 hours, she remained stranded just metres from home, perched 13 storeys above ground after navigating an estimated 30 to 40 metres along the building’s exterior.

“We believe that she got scared by something falling over in our apartment, and we have a little gap on our balcony, and we believe she slipped over there and managed to walk from the other side of the building all the way around,” Jake said.

The breakthrough came when two neighbours spotted her almost simultaneously, one using binoculars and another flying a drone along the balconies.

“Almost simultaneously, they both spotted her, which is unbelievable,” Alex said from Phuket.

Firefighters were called in, launching a delicate operation to reach the stranded dog and bring her back inside.

Alex admitted he “lost it” and “went crazy” when Jake first told him Ellbie had disappeared but later acknowledged his son had handled the situation well.

“In fact, he’s been brilliant throughout the whole process,” he said.

Alex said that while Jack Russells can be notoriously “naughty dogs”, Ellbie is usually very “chilled” and “doesn’t misbehave too much”.

“She sits out on the balcony all the time and has done for the last two years,” he said.

Ellbie was taken to a veterinarian and is expected to return home on Tuesday, with Alex saying she was dehydrated and stiff but recovering well.