The internet is obsessed with a giant dog trying to show his guarding skills against an unusual trespasser.
Ulyana Kupryievich, 26, lives in Athens, Greece, with her Rottweiler dog Ezio, a breed noted for making excellent guard dogs thanks to their loyalty and courage.
In Ezio’s case, Kupryievich told Newsweek he is usually “a very brave boy in terms of guarding his mom,” but admitted “he can be hesitant when finding something new, especially if it makes a sound.”
The pair recently moved into a new apartment in Athens, and discovered something special in their yard: a tortoise, which Kupryievich says she believes has lived in the yard for “at least 10 to 15 years.”
And she caught Ezio’s first meeting with the strange creature on video, uploading the footage to her TikTok account @eziotherotty on November 10, where it has been viewed a whopping 24 million times.
She wrote over the video: “This is who I chose to protect the house“—and it shows Ezio shaking from head to toe in fear as he looks at the tortoise.
He inches towards it, still shivering frantically—but as soon as he gets close, he loses his nerve and sprints the other way. Ezio goes back again, trying to get up the nerve to properly sniff the tortoise, but once again turns and flees with his tail between his legs.
The tortoise, meanwhile, has barely moved, and remains inside its shell for protection.
“Brave little boy,” Kupryievich wrote in the caption, as one commenter defended Ezio: “To be fair, he thought he had to fight a Ninja Turtle.”
“Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the making of action in spite of fear,” another pointed out, while another said: “Tbf [to be fair] that’s a very big rock.”
And another joked that Ezio was “shivering every each of his timbers.”
Rottweilers are described by the American Kennel Club (AKC) as a loyal, loving and confident guardian, affectionate and protective towards family.
In Ezio’s case, Kupryievich says he is now “absolutely obsessed with the idea of going back to the backyard and exploring the tortoise.
“He is still shaking, but more of an excitement now rather than being scared of her,” she said. “Something tells me this was also her first experience with the dog so she was not a big fan of it either!”
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