A student sang lullabies to her professor’s poodle every night in the professor’s robe, then the professor came home and mentioned one detail

A college student who agreed to dog-sit for her favorite professor over fall break says she spent the week singing lullabies to a toy poodle, only to find out the dog could not hear a note. Jess, who posts on TikTok as @jm.bakered, shared the story in a video that has pulled in over five million views, as reported by The Daily Dot.

Jess says she was a junior when the professor offered to pay her to stay at the house and watch her dog. When she opened the door, she found a toy poodle named Princess that she says weighed about a pound and a half and wore a fuzzy sweater and red clip-on nails. According to Jess, the dog was not happy to see her.

The professor had left a two-page letter covering Princess’ walk schedule, what she liked to eat, what she liked to watch on TV, and how she liked to be held. Jess says the instructions also told her to spoon-feed the dog if she did not eat within an hour, so she dug out the dog’s spoon and did exactly that on the first night.

Viewers could not get over the professor’s reaction at the end

Jess says the tiny dog also walked her more than she walked the dog. She claims Princess sprinted down the sidewalk on their first outing while she jogged behind her for an hour, passing neighbors who quickly guessed she was the dog-sitter. She says the walks happened four times a day for the rest of the week.

The lullabies started on the first night, when Princess began barking and running circles on the professor’s bed. Jess texted the professor, who told her she might need to sing the dog a lullaby and wear the professor’s robe and shoes so Princess would recognize her scent. Jess says the song alone did nothing, but the dog fell asleep once she added the robe and shoes.

According to Jess, she kept singing every night until the professor came home. When she mentioned the lullabies, she says the professor told her, “I thought you knew I was joking,” then asked whether she had forgotten to mention that Princess is deaf. Jess says she still went on to dog-sit for Princess again and promised a second part of the story.

The professor’s response was the line viewers quoted most. One commenter wrote that “I thought you knew I was joking” had sent them, while another repeated Jess’ summary of the first walk: “Dog walked me. For an hour.” The most-liked comment came from a viewer who said they were now realizing their own professors had been “far too professional and boring.”

Some viewers were more interested in why the routine worked at all. However, nobody could agree on an answer. One commenter asked, “then why did it work??” Another offered a theory, suggesting that the lullaby changed Jess’ body language and calmed her down, which the dog may have picked up on. A third admitted their brain heard “dead” instead of “deaf” and briefly thought it was a horror story.

A few viewers took a more practical view. One commenter argued that owners should introduce dog-sitters to their pets before leaving, rather than having them show up once the owner is gone. Caring for someone else’s pet comes with surprises, as a pet photographer found when a dog collapsed during a photo shoot in her studio.

Jess posted the video in late September as part of a prompt asking viewers about odd things they have done for money, and the comments filled with stories from people who sold their hair, handwrote letters for a real estate company, and watched farm animals for cash.

Jess has teased a second part about her next stay with Princess, which may explain whether the robe and shoes became part of the routine again.

Attack of the Fanboy was unable to independently verify the professor’s side of the story, as this account originates solely from Jess’ TikTok video.