It’s a new information about a recent event: that is why the present perfect is used here.
All these events happened in the past, that’s why past tenses are used. First Georgia plunged into the river. The past perfect shows that it happened before Sophie swam towards her (past simple). Then the events happened one after another and are described in the order they happened, i.e. the girl clung on to the dog (past simple), then the dog paddled to the bank with the girl (past simple). There is no need to use the past perfect to show that something happened before as in the first sentence of the paragraph.
Georgia was trying to reach the dog – along action (past continuous) interrupted by slipped and plunged – short actions (past simple). Then succession of events Sophie swam and saved – actions that took place one after another.
We don’t know when she was told that – it was at some time in the past (indefinite past), maybe several times, that’s why the present perfect is used here.
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