Dan Clarke says his 3-year-old Bernese Mountain Dog used “pure instinct” to heroically save a woman and her husband from a dangerous current at a Ventura, California, beach last week.

Nico spotted a woman who’d been boogie boarding struggling in a riptide on Thursday afternoon and raced out to help her, reported KTLA.

Clarke, a former lifeguard, called to the woman from the shore, telling her to grab ahold of the dog “anywhere you can.” She put an arm around Nico’s chest, and he swam back to shallow water with her, despite not having any training as a rescue dog.

And Nico wasn’t done yet.

He then swam back out to help the woman’s husband, who’d gotten stuck in the current himself after trying to save his wife. The grateful and tired couple took a few pictures with Nico once they were back on the beach before heading home.

"That’s the first time I’ve seen him doing something like that," Clarke told the station.

Nico might just now be starting to show his heroic side. His owners said they just adopted him from a shelter a couple months ago.