Firefighters from Carlisle were called out after a report that two men were struggling to escape from a rain-swollen beck.
It happened at around 11am today in a fast-flowing river at Carlton, south of Carlisle, where a man had apparently gone into the water to rescue his Rottweiler dog.
Another man at the scene also went into the in an attempt to help the first man.
A passer-by raised the alarm, prompting the deployment of a crew from Carlisle East fire station with a specialist swift-water rescue team.
"By the time we got there was nobody in the water and the dog's owner was on the river bank," said a Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service spokesman.
"The dog was also out of the water."
He thanked a local farmer who had helped the crews get to the scene quickly with their equipment using his tractor.
The dog's owner was checked over by paramedics and found to be okay, added the spokesman.
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