The internet is filled with people who have unconventional pets.
Spend enough time online, and you’re sure to run across someone who owns a squirrel or sugar glider—or even an alligator.
Seeing pets like these, one might wonder if truly any animal, any animal at all, can be kept as a pet. If people can train foxes, how hard would it be to teach a bear a few tricks?
Well, we don’t know how hard it was, but one woman seems to have done it.
How Did This Woman Get This Bear To ‘Sit Down’?
In a video with over 11 million views, TikTok user Susan Kehoe (@susankehoe1) shows herself being greeted at her door by a black bear. In the description, Kehoe writes that the bear has recently reemerged from hibernation.
“Oh, my gosh. You are beautiful! Look at you!” she says in her video, looking at the bear.
After a few seconds—and a couple of “Where’s my good boy?”’—she instructs the bear to sit. While he does not immediately sit, he eventually plops down onto his bottom, leading to praise from Kehoe.
“What a good, good boy,” Kehoe concludes. “I love you.”
Who Is This Woman?
Kehoe is a bear lover and activist who frequently posts content about her interactions with bears. For example, she previously went viral after teaching a bear to not only leave her house but close the door behind it.
“I’ve spent over two decades living alongside the great American black bear. This isn’t a hobby; this is a lifelong study based on patience, non-intrusion, and profound respect,” she explains in an Instagram Reel. “I know my closeness makes some people uneasy, and that caution for the general public is the right message. But, my work is about understanding, not entertainment. It’s about revealing the bear not as a cartoon character or a monster but as a complex intelligent creature in its own home.”
“The trust you see is not something that I demand; it’s something earned through thousands of hours of letting the bears simply be,” she continues.
Kehoe’s relationship with bears has occasionally landed her in legal trouble, as noted by OutdoorLife.
Back in 2010, Kehoe was fined and sentenced to a year of probation for resisting arrest and interfering with state wildlife biologists as they attempted to tranquilize a bear to replace its radio collar, per NJ Advance Media.
She was also sued in 2017. In this case, two hunters claimed that Kehoe accused them of killing a bear named “Pretty Mama,” leading to online harassment. A judge later found that her words were protected under freedom of speech.
Can You Train A Bear?
It should be noted that most experts agree that feeding wild bears is a really bad idea.
According to the National Park Service, there are a few reasons not to feed bears. To start, it can make bears lose their fear of humans. This can result in unpredictable behavior, which can, occasionally, lead to violence.
Similarly, nuisance animals can pose risks to both humans and their property. A bear that is no longer afraid of humans may be more likely to approach a human and attack them for food or break into their vehicle in search of goods.
Finally, bears are not used to human food and the packaging in which it is delivered. This means that they can get used to human food, seek it out, then ingest things they shouldn’t, such as plastic or other packaging materials.
All that said, there are documented cases of people training bears. There are numerous examples of circuses training bears to do tricks like riding a bike and dancing. However, this can also go awry, as evidenced by a 2024 incident in which a Russian circus bear, which had been trained to ride a hoverboard, got off the craft and attacked its trainer. The trainer survived.
In a comment, Kehoe explained her process for training the bear to sit.
“I wait for them to sit on their own. Eventually they will and when they do, I praise them,” she wrote. “Depending on the bear, it can take only a several times to know when they sit they will get praised. I think it’s the tone of my voice.”
Commenters Love The Bear
Despite the danger, commenters expressed their love for the bear in the video.
“How do you resist petting him,” said a user.
“My problem is he’d be in my house,” offered another.
“If humans started this stuff WAY EARLIER we might have had domesticated bears by now,” shared a third.
@susankehoe1 Waking up from a long nap, looking this shiny and healthy? That’s the dream. So incredible to see this big bear thriving after a long winter. The rain makes him look even more majestic. #bear #hibernation #wildlife #nature #beautiful
We’ve reached out to Kehoe via Instagram and Facebook direct message.