They’re doggone giants.
The owner of a pair of big-boned Newfoundland terriers said her pooches are often confused for bears at first glance, terrifying strangers walking past.
Leo, 4, and Teddy, 6, are taller than their owner, 44-year-old librarian Sanela Becovic, and weigh an estimated 154 and 165 pounds, respectively.
The behemoth hounds have become local celebrities in their small town of Laholm, Sweden, where people often stop Becovic to comment on their size.
“It’s hard to get places because people are always stopping us to talk and pet the dogs,” Becovic told Southwest News Service.
“People tell us they look like bears, they ask us ‘what is that, is it a bear’?”
Ironically, Becovic was “deathly afraid of dogs” before buying her Teddy and Leo — which cost her approximately $1,438 and $1,992 each — but wanted “a big bear to cuddle.”
The gentle giants are spoiled rotten by Becovic and her husband, 50-year-old Thomas Petterson, who had to buy a new car with a bigger trunk to accommodate the pooches, ringing in at more than $140,000. The couple even added a ramp for the pups to get in and out of the vehicle easily.
“It’s basically a minibus that we made into Teddy and Leo’s special car, we bought a special mattress and took the seats out,” Becovic described.
The pair were also forced to upgrade apartments, renting a new place for an additional $430 per month with the addition of a second bedroom, which she intends to convert into a room for Teddy and Leo.
But not all Newfoundland parents will splurge on their canines like she has.
“You don’t need to put this much money into them, I don’t have kids so they are my kids,” she said.
“I’m obsessed with them and I spend much more money on them than normal people do.”