They’re air buds.
Corinne Dhenin, 68, from Switzerland, has two great passions in life — paragliding, and her dogs Phoebe and Megabyte.
In 15 years, the grandmother-of-four has shared over 500 airborne adventures with her furry friends — and she’s not bothered by people who don’t approve.
“I started on very small slopes with Megabyte, our first flight was only one meter in the air,” Dhenin told South West News Service. “Then I took her higher and higher.”
“Eventually we were doing flights of about 3,000 feet, from top to bottom of different mountains,” she said.
“When a lot of people find out I fly with my dog their reaction is that it’s not fair on the dog — I want to make it clear that my dog likes coming with me,” the 68-year-old said.
Dhenin first began hang gliding in 1981, while working as a manager for a market research company.
But due to the difficulty of the sport, she eventually started paragliding instead, and now has more than 1,300 flights under her belt.
The daredevil has even gone from France to Morocco using a microlight – a petrol powered hang glider.
After Megabyte grew too old to keep flying with her, she decided to take her boxer, Phoebe, for a spin, and hasn’t looked back since.
“When I first took Phoebe flying, she was six months old and attached in front of me — she panicked and tried to climb up me in the air,” Dhenin told SWNS.
“But she soon realized she was okay and wasn’t going to fall,” she added. “And now, on flight 230, she’s used to it.”
Now, the mom-of-three is retired, so she spends most of her time paragliding, going for an adventure and a mountain climb each day.
So far, she’s climbed around 200 mountains and covered about 675,000 feet vertically in total.
She said it’s quite rare that paragliders take their large dogs up with them, as her boxer weighs over 65 pounds.
“It’s a very technical thing to do, you’ve got to support the weight until you’ve taken off but once you’re in the air it’s okay,” she explained.
And, since she has such a close relationship with her dog and spends nearly 24 hours a day with her, it only makes sense that Phoebe is along for the ride.
“She gets the most wonderful life, she’s out climbing mountains all day long and I do it for her. I’m not being selfish or anything, the dog loves it just as much as I do.”
Typically, the two will go for a three-to-four-hour climb directly from their house, and land there too.
She also enjoys hang gliding, speed riding — a ski sport — and piloting microlight planes.
Now, Phoebe gets so excited to go paragliding with Dhenin, that she won’t let her leave unless she knows she’s going too.
“Every time she sees me getting the equipment ready in the mornings she comes and stands by the door and won’t let me go without her,” Dhenin said.