...
By Liz O'Connell
Reporter
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
A video of guardian dogs showing a sheep who is in charge quickly went viral and sparked debate among viewers about the interaction.
TikTok user @fratalkan0434, who lives in Turkey, was in the barn with his animals—full-grown sheep and their babies, guardian dogs and puppies. In the February 16 video, it appeared the puppy happily started following the sheep and their baby, but the scene quickly took a turn. One sheep was on a mission and darted toward the guardian dogs' puppy.
With the sheep's head angled down, she ran straight to the baby and knocked the puppy down. She wanted to tell the puppy to back off and leave them alone. Not happy with the sheep's response, the guardian dogs responded immediately.
Read More on Pets
First, one dog barked and pushed the sheep back, with a second canine quickly following. The sheep tripped and fell, landing on a baby animal. The dogs towered over the sheep. They barked the commands to let the sheep know never to let that happen again.
The owner started yelling to break up the fight and the two dogs let up. The sheep and the baby walked away.
The caption on the video reads: "Every living thing protects its own offspring."
With more than 30.4 million views and 582,400 likes on TikTok as of Friday, viewers flocked to the comment section defending both sides of the situation.
"A mother will do anything to protect their child, law of the barn," wrote one viewer, while a second echoed: "Common farm and ranch activities. And the point is how the dogs are protectors. Guardians of the other animals. And will correct them without harming them. Our dogs do the same thing. It's Amazing."
However, several other viewers were concerned about the way the dogs defended the pup. Someone said: "Your livestock guardians should NEVER be that aggressive towards their own livestock."
"Strong parents on both sides," a viewer commented.
This wasn't the first time the dogs stepped in to protect their baby. The puppy is training to become a guardian, but because he's young, he still wants to play. Several other videos on the account show the puppy trying to play with the sheep. The mama sheep will often step in to stop it as the dogs stand by to make sure nothing escalates.
Newsweek reached out to @fratalkan0434 via TikTok for additional information. We could not verify the details of the case.
...
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend, and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines