MAN FINDS GOLDEN RETRIEVER GIVING BABY KOALA PIGGYBACK RIDE

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Man Hears a Commotion in His Yard, Finds His Golden Retriever Giving a Baby Koala a Piggyback Ride

By Rachel Raposas  Published on October 2, 2025 05:03PM EDT

 

Who knew koalas and dogs could get along so well?

 

A golden retriever and a baby koala forged an unlikely friendship on Sept. 25, when the small marsupial hopped aboard the dog for a piggyback ride, per a post from Steve Lamplough on his community's Facebook group.

 

Lamplough, who lives in southwest Victoria in Australia, wrote that he heard his dogs barking outside and went to see what the commotion was all about. There, he saw something curious on the back of his golden retriever, Denni.

 

"Denni came running up to me with this on her back," Lamplough wrote in the post, which featured photos of the dog and the baby koala together, "Both as happy as Larry."

 

In the photos, Denni beams at the camera, while the baby koala hugs the back of its new friend's neck tightly from behind. From multiple angles, the baby koala appears unalarmed to be on the back of a large golden retriever, and almost seems comfortable gripping the dog.

 

Lamplough decided the best course of action was to gently remove the baby koala from his pup's back and place it in a nearby tree for the koala's mother to find later. Lamplough confirmed on Facebook that an adult koala came and collected the joey, and that no animals were hurt during the encounter between the dog and the koala.

 

Lamplough's post about the interspecies meet-cute garnered over 9,000 likes and has been shared nearly 800 times.

 

Lamplough spoke with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in the days after Denni's interaction with the joey, and reflected on the wholesome experience. He said he does occasionally see koalas on his property, but never up close and never on his dog's back.

 

"It was quite amazing to see," Lamplough said. "Especially when [Denni] was running and [the baby koala] was bobbing up and down like a jockey."

 

"The dogs are always intrigued with [the koalas], but this is the first time I've ever seen them get that friendly," he added.