When Christine Jo Miller and her husband brought their newborn daughter, Elainey, home, the new mom was worried about how their 145-pound Bernese Mountain Dog, Berkley, would handle this addition to their little family, particularly considering his hefty size and energetic nature.
“I used to have very far boundaries for him with her, since he’s so big,” she told The Dodo .
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However, any concerns Miller may have had were soon squashed when she realized just how in love Berkley was with his new little sister.
And the feeling was definitely mutual.
“The only thing that would make [Elainey] happy was him being in the room,” Miller explained. “So once we gave him the OK to be around her… [we] realized how gentle he really is.”
But it wasn’t until little Elainey was eight months old that her parents truly understood how strong the pair’s bond truly was.
Around that time, Miller and her husband set up baby monitors in their daughter’s bedroom to keep a closer eye on her while she slept alone in her crib.
Upon reviewing the footage, they were surprised to find they weren’t the only ones concerned with Elainey’s well-being at night.
Berkley had been caught on the baby monitor sneaking into Elainey’s room to check on his baby sister.
“We caught him the second we got the cameras,” Miller said . “It was like he knew he had a job to do and it was to watch out for her.”
And it wasn’t just a one-time thing, either
Miller said Berkley continued his nightly check-ins, quietly popping in to do a quick sweep of little Elainey’s room with his tail wagging before leaving again.
Judging from the footage, it certainly seems like the pup is making sure his baby sister is safe before allowing himself to go to bed.
“He’s never gone in to do anything crazy,” Miller said. “[He] just checks in and turns around and leaves, so I know it’s his duty to do as part of the family.”
The understandably touched mom put together a compilation video of Berkley’s heartwarming bedtime routine and shared it on TikTok with the caption, “We don’t deserve dogs.”
That video quickly went viral, amassing over 4.5 million views and more than 740,000 likes as of this writing.
In that video , Miller explains that she and her husband first bought Berkley while they were still dating in college, and used all the money they had to welcome the pup into their lives.
Since then, sweet Berkley has been by the couple’s side for every milestone in their life, big and small.
As Miller wrote in the clip, “From dating, to engagement, to marriage, to buying our first home, to babies, to building our final home…he’s been there.”
“One of those ‘that wasn’t smart of us at the time’ purchases, but every bit worth it.”
