A family's pet dog fell overboard in rough seas off the coast of Australia four months ago has been reunited with its owners after surviving a solitary four month stay on an island.

The dog, Sophie Tucker, fell overboard November when Jan Griffith and her family sailed through choppy waters off the coast of northeast Queensland.

The family assumed the dog had drowned and was devastated.

Unbeknownst to the family, Sophie was swimming for her life-finally making it to St. Bees Island, five nautical miles away, the AFP reported.

The dog was reunited with her family last week after Griffith contacted park rangers who had captured a dog found on the mostly uninhabited island that had been living off feral goats, hoping there might be a chance it was their lost Sophie.

The Griffiths met rangers' boat, which was bringing the dog to the mainland, and it became clear Sophie had found her family at long last.

"We called the dog and she started whimpering and banging the cage and they let her out and she just about flattened us," Griffith told the national AAP news agency. "She wriggled around like a mad thing."

Sophie Tucker, an Australian cattle dog, is said to be readjusting to the plush life well.

"She surprised us all. She was a house dog and look what she's done, she's swum over five nautical miles, she's managed to live off the land all on her own," Griffiths said to the AAP. "We wish she could talk, we truly do."