THIS is the heart stopping moment a dutiful pup is caught squaring up to a bear after it broke into a Californian home.

Footage shows the 17-year-old dog named Doodle watch the beast smash through the door before trying to fend it off with his barks.

All this while the dog’s owner, Zoe Cadman, lay fast asleep.

The nail-biting moment, which saw the hairy intruder roam around the house for almost half an hour, was caught on Zoe’s home security cam.

Unprovoked, the bear is then seen wandering over to the fridge and raid its contents before making its way out – leaving both Zoe and Doodle unscathed.

Fit with a massive collar, it’s not clear whether the bear was being monitored or if it belonged to anyone.

But neighbors suggest the enormous creature is a frequent visitor.

One local told NBC Los Angeles: “It’s part of living up here. We’re really close to the mountains and they were here first.

“But luckily, knock on wood, they’ve all been really friendly coming through here.”

This isn’t the first time nosy bears have come up close and personal with humans.

Last year, disturbing footage showed the moment a man was savagely attacked by a raging 40st bear at a zoo.

The man climbed the 13ft enclosure and jumped into the bear pit before the beast tossed him around like a rag doll.

Footage shot by shocked visitors shows the bear pouncing on the man, said to be in his mid-20s, before grabbing him and clamping its jaws around his shoulders.

He was seen bleeding from the head, arms and left hand after the brutal attack while the emergency services scrambled into action.

Around 40 bear attacks take place around the globe every year – and some of them turn out to be fatal.

Last year, a massive brown bear fatally mauled a father and son after the raging beast broke into their home.

The man-eating bear broke into the house in Luchegorsk, Primorsky region in eastern Russia, killing and eating the pair, aged 87 and 56.

Meanwhile, another man was savagely mauled to death by a wild brown bear as he picked mushrooms in a forest in Slovakia.

The beast tore one of the victim’s main arteries with just its paw, the rescuers’ report claims.

Despite an emergency chopper being able to locate the man in the tricky terrain, they were too late and couldn’t save him.

Another woman was left dead and five others injured after two separate bear attacks just hours apart in Slovakia.

Meanwhile, a Belarusian woman was found dead in the Low Tatras mountains while five others were injured by a rampaging bear just eight miles away in Liptovsky Mikulas.

In a shocking case, a hoverboard-riding circus bear attacked its handler during a cruel show in front of screaming families in Russia.

The raging female bear suddenly became agitated and lunged at the circus performer during a show packed with kids and parents in Biysk.

The captive animal launched itself at Sergei Prichinich, 48, after she seemed fed up of having to perform on the hoverboard.