In a house with five dogs, we always know who runs the show: the smallest one. Hank is a very sweet, but somewhat dopey golden retriever, and he simply adores teeny terrier mix Bella, so she uses that to her advantage and has him carry her around the house…. and directly to the treats.

Adriana Burkhart is a 19-year-old junior at Michigan State University. Bella lives with her, and on weekends they come home to Midland where her family’s other four dogs live.

“Ever since we got Bella, Hank has loved her.  She fit in one hand when I got her, but Hank would just sit and stare at her,” Burkhart told BuzzFeed News.

“She eventually started playing with him and she would bite at his ears and he would just lay there and smile at her.  They sleep together whenever I visit home and she chases him all around the house.”

Being so little, especially when compared to her siblings, Bella needs a boost to get onto the couch, and figured out that Hank made for good scaffolding.

“She’s the smallest of the dogs, so she uses him whenever she wants attention but all the other dogs are around.  She pretty much uses him as a stepping stool,” Burkhart said, and that from there it just “kind of escalated.”  Quite literally!

“I heard Hank walking around the living room, and I looked up, and Bella was just laying on him going from room to room,” she recalled.

“My mom and I couldn’t believe it, and we just kind of looked at them and looked at each other in a simultaneous ‘What just happened?’ kind of moment.”

Now Bella spends her weekends being sumptuously conveyed around like a queen, which by the look on the face of that pug, rankles some members of the household.

“I go home all the time, and the moment Bella walks through the door, [she] and Hank go CRAZY,” Burkhart said. “They just hang out all day, which in turn means she rides him around the house.”

“Don’t mind that your feet are directly on my eyeballs…. you go ahead and get your snacks.”

This maneuver comes in handy when there’s a chance for treats to be doled out.

“Whenever we’re making food, she uses Hank to get a better vantage point so she can be closer to the counter.  She’s got a pretty good puppy dog eye, so they both end up getting treats whenever that happens.”

It might seem like Bella is exploiting Hank’s kindness, but he doesn’t seem to mind being her chariot – he’s just happy to have his best friend home again.

“Honestly, most of the time, Hank doesn’t even seem to notice,” Burkhart said. “I’m pretty sure that he likes it, because when she jumps down he’ll follow her around.”