{"id":452222,"date":"2025-09-26T06:56:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T06:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/452222\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T06:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T06:56:13","slug":"baby-koala-rides-golden-retriever-like-a-racehorse-in-south-west-victoria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/452222\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby koala rides golden retriever like a racehorse in south-west Victoria"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Steve Lamplough heard a commotion outside his south-west Victorian home, the last thing he expected to see was a koala riding his dog like a racehorse.<\/p>\n

Mr Lamplough said he was in disbelief when his nine-year-old golden retriever Denni came bounding toward him with a baby koala clinging to her back.<\/p>\n

“It was quite amazing to see,” he said<\/p>\n

“Especially when [Denni] was running and [the koala] was bobbing up and down like a jockey.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Dog<\/p>\n

Mr Lamplough said the koala was very comfortable on his dog’s back.\u00a0 (Supplied: Steve Lamplough)<\/p>\n

Mr Lamplough lives in Bolwarra, near Portland, about 350 kilometres south-west of Melbourne.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He says he commonly sees koalas around the property.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What is less common is for one to be on his dog’s back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“[The koala] was pretty content to stay there,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It was on [Denni] for a few minutes, that I saw anyway, until I could get it off.<\/p>\n

“They were both as happy as Larry.”<\/p>\n

Beginnings of a friendship\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Lamplough said it was his first time handling a koala.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’ve got a massive manna gum tree and koalas love it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We quite regularly get them wandering around and climbing up the tree.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“At first I thought, how the heck am I going to get it off … but I took the baby off Denni’s back and made sure it didn’t claw her.<\/p>\n

\"koala<\/p>\n

Mr Lamplough says mum and bub koala are still happily living in his garden.\u00a0 (Supplied: Steve Lamplough\u00a0)<\/p>\n

“I checked [the koala] out and it was all OK and put it up a tree and then I checked Denni out, made sure she didn’t have any scratches on her and she was fine as well.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Lamplough said he was pleased to see the joey reunited with its mother about 15 minutes after taking the canine for a canter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The dogs are always intrigued with [the koalas], but this is the first time I’ve ever seen them get that friendly,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Lamplough said Denni was an extremely friendly, placid and loving dog.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When she had pups she was a fantastic mother,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Maybe that is why she accepted the baby koala.”<\/p>\n

When Denni is not out giving joeys a ride, she loves eating chicken wings and playing with a ball. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Steve Lamplough heard a commotion outside his south-west Victorian home, the last thing he expected to see…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[113291,152040,152042,152041,152038,152039,152045,152044,70,16,152043,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-452222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-australian-animals","9":"tag-baby-koala","10":"tag-cute-koala-photos","11":"tag-furry-friends","12":"tag-golden-retriever","13":"tag-joey-koala","14":"tag-koala-rides-dog","15":"tag-quirky-news","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-unexpected-animal-friendships","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115269297104285002","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}