Hearts have melted at a tiny dog doing her best to protect her family from an evil presence: a Halloween decoration.
Melissa Riesenberg, 55, a realtor based in Lakeland, Florida, owns miniature Dachshund dog Zoe, who has become a social media sensation for her reaction to a Halloween cushion.
“Our Zoe kept barking at something, and we couldn’t figure out what,” Riesenberg told Newsweek. “That pillow was sitting in our blanket basket for about three days or so, and I guess she just didn’t notice it right away.”
Zoe is less than a year old, and this will be her first Halloween—and as proven by the video, which has been viewed more than 2 million times, she’s not exactly a fan.
In a video to Mel’s TikTok account, @centralflhomesbymel in October, Riesenberg asks Zoe what she was barking at. The tiny dog cautiously approaches a basket to get a closer look at a small, cream-coloured pillow made to look like a carved pumpkin.
When Riesenberg’s husband picks up the cushion, Zoe has an instant reaction: she sprints backwards, and—from a safe distance—starts barking and growling wildly.
And when the man gently tosses the cushion towards her, Zoe loses it completely, letting out a bark that sounds like a scream—and bolts out of the room.
Mel wrote over the video that she “laughed so hard. I almost peed my pants!”
She added that she “felt like such a horrible dog mom because she screamed,” but assured viewers: “Don’t worry everyone she’s OK! We put the pillow up for the rest of the season. It will not come back out.”
Riesenberg told Newsweek it was the “first time she ever barked at something like that,” and “never did we ever expect her to scream like that when he tossed it her way.”
TikTok users were in stitches, one commenter joking: “The good thing is, she didn’t overreact.”
“I’ve never heard a dog scream in fear,” another said, while others compared Zoe to cartoons Courage the Cowardly Dog and Scooby Doo.
“She skedaddled,” another laughed. “I’ve never heard a dog scream before.”
And one shared their own story: “Our chiweenie is terrified of a skeleton cutout so we have to give it away lol.”
One user suggested using treats to train Zoe not to be afraid of the cushion, by “teaching her it’s a reward and not a threat.”
It is possible to train a fearful dog to no longer be afraid of a certain trigger, by building positive associations with the things that scare them. This is known as desensitization and counterconditioning, and while it is time-consuming, it has proven to be effective, according to the American Kennel Club.
The owner can begin by praising and giving treats to the dog while the trigger—in this case, the cushion—is visible but far away. Bit by bit, they can move closer to the cushion while praising and rewarding the dog, until the dog stops associating the trigger with fear, and instead with treats and rewards.
Riesenberg told Newsweek Zoe is mow “comfortable with the pillow being out again, but only after chewing it apart a little bit.
“Guess the pillow deserved that!”
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to [email protected] with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.