If only Goldilocks had a feisty dog.
A pint-sized, pugnacious pooch used his loud bark to scare off a trio of bears in New Jersey after they strayed into his back yard.
Pawlee, a 15-pound, black and gray cockapoo, ran out of his home in the town of Wyckoff on Sunday after he spotted a mother bear and her two cubs wandering in his direction.
“He has a pretty loud bark,” owner Fran Osiason told The Post yesterday. “Sometimes he’s a crazy little puppy.”
Osiason said she and her son Jacob, 9, scurried out of the house, just off Route 208 about 20 miles northwest of Manhattan, at 8:30 a.m. to see what the hubbub was all about.
“I scooped up the dog, and the bears turned around and went back into the woods,” Osiason recalled.
The brave pup had been about 20 feet away from the bears, the family said.
The two cubs were so startled by Pawlee’s barking, they climbed a tree.
The bruins eventually climbed down and followed their mom over a 4-foot fence before scattering into the woods.
The Osiason family called police, but by the time they showed up, the bears had gone.
Alicia Price, 18, a college student who dog-sits Pawlee, said she’s not surprised by his actions.
“He’s crazy. He has a lot of energy,” she said. “He’s always barking at things.”
Osiason said bears are not uncommon in the woods behind her home – although she had not seen any until last weekend.
“We’re very close to the woods,” said Osiason, noting that deer are a more common sight. “We sometimes feel like we’re in their territory.”
Osiason said they’ve had Pawlee – a mix between a cocker spaniel and a poodle – for the past six months.