A 15-pound cocker spaniel-poodle mix named Pawlee scared off a mother bear and her two cubs Sunday morning after they strayed into his owners’ back yard.

Whether his bark was worse than his bite, Pawlee’s tactic worked just fine. These three bears got the hint and took off.

Pawlee had just gone into the yard for his morning outing when he started barking like crazy.  Jacob, the Osiason’s 9 year old son, went to check to see what was making him cause such a commotion. Jacob saw a mother bear and her cubs in their yard.

Fran Osiason was concerned that the pups barking would make the mother bear come after him in order to protect her cubs. Instead Pawlee’s barking sent the cubs running for cover straight up a tree. Eventually they came down and hightailed it out of there with mom.

Osiason said she, her son, husband Andrew and daughter Eden, 6, have had Pawlee since he was about 8 weeks old. She marveled at his fearlessness.

“He’s a little fur ball,” she said.

I guess you could say that Pawlee’s bark really was worse than his bite.