Dog Tucks in Sleeping Baby at Night in Adorable Viral Video

A resurfaced video of a dog tucking in a baby has gone viral again since being shared on TikTok and Twitter. The video sees a small black and tan dog tucking in the sleeping baby girl by pushing a blue blanket on top of her with its nose.

Twitter user @TheFlyAuntie shared the video on Twitter on Wednesday and said: "Y'all need something wholesome this morning. You're welcome." The video has since been viewed 2.8 million times on Twitter.

The video uploaded by @TheFlyAuntie was posted on TikTok by @fjerry earlier in April, where it was viewed more than 4.1 million times. It first went viral in 2016 when Viral Hog shared it on YouTube, where it has been viewed more than a million times.

Now, Twitter users are responding to the resurfaced video by imagining that the dog has taken over the parenting role in the home as if the baby was its own puppy.

@KiraJW said: "First they make a pup with no fur, now they leave it uncovered. I have to do everything around here," while @Puff_Iya imagined the dog saying: "I gotta do everything in this gatdamn house."

Twitter user @LOfficielEbony said: "The dog: 'Y'all gon' let her freeze to death! I see y'all don't know what to do with a baby!'"

Although most viewers find the video adorable, others are not so sure if the dog's intention was really to tuck the baby in for a good night's sleep.

Many social media users have said that their dogs display similar behavior—but with valuable items such as toys and treats that they are saving for later. Others have suggested that the dog may be trying to cover up something stinky.

On TikTok, one viewer commented: "Dogs do this when they're trying to hide something... She wasn't tucking her in, she was trying to bury her," while another said: "Baby must need a diaper change and the dog is trying to hide the smell."

So why do dogs cover babies with blankets? The answer may not be as cute as the video would make it seem.

According to the site Wag Walking, "dogs do not display this behavior with their own puppies. They may nudge puppies or gently pick them up to move them but they do not cover them up.

"However, they do display this type of burying behavior with food. Animal behaviorists often refer to this as 'caching' and it is a common behavior among predators."

This is reiterated by another website, Family Paws, which says: "The gentle nudging of the blanket to cover a newborn can be heartwarming but also misleading. It is often hard for new parents to remember that their family dog is still a dog. They are not relating to their baby as a human sibling."

Family Paws says that dogs do not do this with their puppies, but that "they do this with novel things they want to stash for later or to cover up the scent of."

So is the dog in the viral video tucking the baby in, keeping her safe to play with later, or simply covering up a smelly diaper? Perhaps the video is cuter if we imagine it's the first one...