This is the heartbreaking moment a mother dog refuses to let go of her dead puppy and keeps taking it away from her owner who is trying to bury it.

The sad event took place in Leshan, Sichuan Province, on 17th November.

The owner, not named in local media, said that his dog gave birth to nine puppies, but sadly one of them died.

He dug a small hole near his house for a grave, but the pup’s mother kept following him to take her dead baby back to the litter.

Video footage of the tragic scene shows the owner about to place the puppy inside the grave and its mum running up to try to snatch the body from the man’s hands.

The sad footage shows the dog and her owner going back and forth as the mum refuses to give up her dead baby, forcing the man to try and pull her away.

But the sight which is almost too upsetting to watch is drawn out into the second piece of footage that shows the mother coming back to get her puppy out of the burial hole and bringing it back to the shed.

The owner said that this went on back and forth for a while, as he repeatedly struggled to push away the grieving dog until he could finally lay the puppy to rest.