Mom Accidentally Posts Video of Her Toddler Giving the Family Dog a Spa Day — and Now It Has 1 Million Views (Exclusive)
Frank and Halle have been inseparable since the start
courtesy of Zoe Perry
Frank and Halle through the yearsFrank and Halle are a dog and toddler bestie who accidentally went viral on TikTok
Mom Zoe and her husband, Michael, worked hard to prepare Frank ahead of Halle's arrival. Their work paid off, and the two could not be closer
When Zoe went to edit and share a video she took of the pair, just for close friends and family, she accidentally uploaded the clip to TikTok, and two stars were born
A mom's TikTok has gone viral as she chronicles the adorable relationship between her Weimaraner and her baby girl.
Zoe, on TikTok @frankandhalle, has shared videos of the adorable bond between her dog, Frank, and her daughter, Halle.
"We've had Frank since he was a puppy, since he was able to come home, so I think that's about 12 weeks old in the UK. And he was 2 when Halle was born," Zoe tells PEOPLE.
"He'd never been around children or babies when Halle was born. And it was something that I was quite conscious of when I first found out that I was pregnant."
The pregnancy news was exciting for Zoe and husband Michael. But the new dynamic was top of mind, she says. "When I first found out I was pregnant, my initial thought was, 'How is Frank going to react?' "
The couple knew it was important to them that they prepared Frank in every way possible.
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"Throughout my pregnancy, it was my top priority to include him in everything to do with a new baby coming into not just our life, but obviously into his life and into his home as well," she shares.
Those preparations meant keeping Frank nearby while they were decorating the nursery and getting together all of their baby girl's things.
"We knew that she was going to be called Halle, so we would mention her name and we'd say, as we were building her cot or putting away toys, 'This is Halle's.' "
They even got a teddy bear that played the baby girl's heartbeat, "so that he kind of understood that other sound," Zoe adds.
"We would play baby crying noises through the Alexa or on YouTube so that he could get used to them. I stayed in hospital overnight the first night that she was born. The clothes that she had worn when she was first born, my husband brought them home so Frank could smell them and get used to them," she continues.
Their homecoming quickly showed all their hard work paid off.
"He just took to her straight away," Zoe says of the first days together. "I didn't know what to expect. Initially when we brought her in and I sort of had her in the basket and he was sniffing and he was quite curious and he went and got his ball and brought it over to her and put it into the cot."
"He just kind of did that from day one, and we just kind of taught him the boundaries because he's a big dog and he thinks he's a lap dog," Zoe shares. "He doesn't realize his size, so we were teaching him a lot about boundaries and being sort of assertive when he would go too close and we would be like, 'No,' And teach him what was right and what was wrong."
As Halle grew and was able to play with Frank more, their bond also grew. That also took teaching Halle to respect Frank's boundaries.
"If Frank was sleeping, to not go over to him, to have gentle hands, to be kind when she's touching his skin, not to touch his face, not to go near his mouth, things like that," Zoe says.
That process has gone well, and she finds that Halle "follows our lead" when it comes to how Zoe and Michael are with Frank.
"She sees us making a fuss of Frank and we give him lots of kisses and cuddles," she adds, "and we are gentle with him, when we clean his face, we clean his ears, and I think that's what sparked Halle taking an interest when she had her pretend makeup bag."
In one of several viral videos of the duo on TikTok, Frank lays there and enjoys being pampered by the toddler, who gives him a full spa day treatment with her toy makeup.
"I think she thought that's what I was doing, and she just did that herself," Zoe says of Frank's care. "The first time she did it, I mean, we didn't capture it on camera because it just happened spontaneously. And Frank, he just laid there and he just loved it, the fact that she was just really gentle with using the brushes."
Zoe admits that sharing the videos was only supposed to happen within her inner circle. After using TikTok to edit videos she'd share with loved ones, she accidentally posted one of her videos one day.
"I didn't have my notifications turned on because I just didn't really use the platform. And then later that night when I came to use TikTok, just to aimlessly scroll, I had so many notifications, and I think at that point it was sort of at about 50,000 views. I was like, 'What is going on? This was a complete accident,' " she recalls. "Then by the morning, I think it had hit 1 million and it just blew up."
Commenters love the sweet connection between the little girl and her dog in all the clips Zoe has posted since.
"Frank is such a character, even not just with Halle, but with me, with my husband. In general, he is just a funny dog," she shares. "He's so clumsy. He's big, but he's clumsy. He's like a big friendly giant."
"The comments were really heartwarming and it was not just about Frank, but also about Halle being gentle and how heartwarming this is with everything going on in the world right now, how this is what we need to see more of," she continues. "I started to acknowledge this is doing a really nice thing and not just showing that there is kindness out there and teaching Halle about gentle hands, but also that dogs can be gentle with babies too."
Zoe and her family are grateful for the "amazing" reaction the world has had to their favorite duo.
"My family all love it — my work, my colleagues, my friends, they have said to me for a long time, 'You need to do something with this. You need to show the world, the relationship that Halle and Frank have,' And I just always laughed it off," she adds. "Now they're like, 'See, I knew this is what the world needed more of.' "
Zoe hopes more people will take the steps necessary to create such beautiful bonds between their children and pets, too.
"f I could give a piece of advice to anybody with a dog who might be expecting, it would be to always include them and set boundaries from the beginning. So I think that's when I've had a lot of comments from people on the TikToks asking, 'How did you get them to bond so close?' And I think it is just making everybody feel included and just keep spreading lots of love."
