ohmidog!

When Rubert “Lee” and Elizabeth Littler adopted a 135-pound Saint Bernard from the Highland County Dog Pound in Ohio, they had no idea his first bark would be such a big one.

The Hillsboro family’s new dog — named Hercules, aptly enough — scared a burglar away the same day they took him home, the Wilmington News Journal in Ohio reported.

In his new home for only six hours, Hercules chased down a burglar that had cut telephone and cable lines and was attempting to enter a basement door on the back side of the home.

Up to that point, Lee said, Hercules had not made a sound.

“I was taking Hercules out the back door to go to the bathroom and just had ahold of him by the collar … when he started growling. The next thing I know he’s pulled out of my hand and is going through the screen door,” Lee said.

“Hercules jumped off the back porch, over the stairwell, and I see this guy running toward the fence …(Hercules) ran up and grabbed the guy by his ankle as he was going over the fence.”

Lee said the suspected burglar was able to get away, but probably only because Hercules is still recovering from what a vet says was likely a coyote attack.

Hercules was found last month, bleeding and dehydrated, by a doctor and an attorney who were hiking.

They took him to a veterinarian, who speculated he had been attacked by coyotes. One of the hikers took him home, and after a few days, Hercules felt good enough to jump the 6-foot-high fence.

He was found wandering the streets and taken to the shelter.

Lee said he adopted the dog mainly to save him from being euthanized, and had planned to find him a new home. “But now we don’t know what we’re going to do,” he said. “I think he’s more or less earned his right to stay.”

The Littlers reported the attempted burglary and police responded and searched, but the suspect wasn’t located. Police patrols have been stepped up in the area.

Then again, after his confrontation with Hercules, maybe the burglar has moved on to a new town.