A golden retriever reached new levels of exhaustion after doing all the night feeds with his owner.
Teddy was committed the day Tori Harley brought her newborn daughter home to Atlanta, Georgia. But the hours of feeding every one to two hours during the first month took a toll on the family dog.
Harley, 23, showed just how wiped out her year-old golden retriever was from the newborn routine in a post on TikTok. One picture even showed Teddy asleep mid-staircase with his head drooping off a step, a toy still in his mouth.
“I had never seen a dog as tired as he was before, it was almost human-like,” Harley told Newsweek. “I knew he wanted to sleep, but he just would not let her out of his sight. Anytime he would walk around, it was like he was moping around the house wondering, ‘When are we going to bed?’”
For Harley, those lonely hours of feeding became unexpectedly comforting with Teddy’s presence. “It gets very lonely doing it by yourself,” the new mom said. “However, anytime I turned around, it seemed he was right at my feet with me telling me, ‘You got this mom!’ I could tell he was tired of being there and was overall exhausted, but he definitely made it a commitment to go in her nursery with me every time. It was so sweet.”
Teddy’s commitment to the night shift started long before the first late-night bottle. When Harley first brought her daughter home from the hospital, she made sure to introduce him to her scent using the baby blanket she wore before walking through the door.
“Immediately, he was so excited and knew that I had someone with me,” Harley recalled. “After he settled down, he licked my daughter and snuggled his head up as close as he could. I knew that he thought of her as his own.”
Harley’s post has been viewed 1.4 million times, with hundreds of dog owners sharing stories of doing tag-team night feeds.
“Fawkes, my GSD mix, woke with me every night feed,” one user shared.
“My boy has done it twice,” another added.
“I’m 5 months pp [postpartum] and my dogs are still exhausted,” a third joked.
Now, looking back at the photos, Harley said she’s struck by how much those moments meant.
“I was exhausted, but I didn’t realize how much Teddy cared about her just as much as I did,” Harley said. “It’s really special to think that we essentially did the newborn nights together and that’s something I will always see when I look at them as they grow older. She definitely has a best friend in Teddy, and I know that he thinks the world of her.”