When Kayla glanced into her living room on a warm summer afternoon, the last thing she expected was to see a bear. Before she could even process what was happening, her 5-lb. dog, Scout, charged straight at the intruder and chased it out the door.
“It was a Monday and I was just getting ready to go out,” Kayla tells PEOPLE. “I was in the washroom with music playing, so I didn’t hear the bear come in.” Because of the heat — and no air conditioning — she had left the front door open. Any sounds from the kitchen, she assumed, were just Scout moving around.
That assumption vanished quickly. “I came out of the washroom and saw the bear in the living room, and then Scout chased him outside into the backyard,” she recalls.
The unlikely hero is a 2-year-old Pomeranian who normally prefers cuddles over confrontation. Kayla says Scout isn’t aggressive, just confident. “He’s like a lazy, cuddly lover boy, but I guess he’s protective of me,” she says. “If there’s a new dog at our house, he might be protective, but it’s not like he’s an attack dog or anything.”
Kayla, who is pregnant, thinks Scout’s protective instincts have grown stronger lately. “Since I’ve been pregnant, he’s just so protective,” she explains. “Especially since I’ve been sick a lot, he’s always there.”
The moment was captured in a TikTok posted on Aug. 4, which has since racked up 6.4 million views. Kayla captioned the clip: “The bear was in our kitchen for a few min eating the dog food”, along with the text on screen, “My 5 pound dog chasing a bear out of our house.”
Kayla says adrenaline took over as she saw the bear. “I was just stunned,” she recalls. “I was scared and trying to get it outside, but Scout immediately chased it out, and then I was worried about him chasing it.”
She grabbed the bear spray kept near the door, fearing the animal might turn back. “By the time I got outside, it was already over the fence,” she says.
The encounter was a first inside the house. “We’ve had bears in the backyard before, but I’ve only seen one in person,” Kayla says. “Usually they just show up on our cameras at night. They’ve never come inside. This was completely new for us.”
Afterward, her biggest concern was Scout. She was relieved to see him trot back inside unharmed, acting as if nothing unusual had happened. “When I realized he was fine, I was just like — okay, this is crazy,” Kayla says. “It’s insane that a little dog like him would even attempt that.”
She later decided to share the video on TikTok. Though she’s had viral clips before, this one spread much wider than expected. “I thought people would like it, but I didn’t think it would be on the news,” she says. “Mostly the response has been positive.”
Thousands of commenters praised Scout’s bravery. “People just think he’s so brave,” Kayla says. “They love him.”
The incident also prompted some changes at home. Kayla has since bought an air conditioner so she no longer has to keep the door open on hot days. “It just made me more aware of the wildlife around here,” she says. “And a little more protective of Scout — even though clearly he can handle himself.”
Still, Kayla wants people to know the viral clip doesn’t define Scout. “A lot of people think he’s this attack dog now, and he’s really just a sweetie,” she says.
For her, the story isn’t about a viral moment — it’s about a tiny dog’s loyalty. “He’s my little protector,” she says. “And now apparently, he’s not afraid of bears.”
