A video of a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi getting some unexpected accompaniment in blowing a ram’s horn before the Jewish New Year has become something of an Internet sensation, with almost 200,000 people viewing several copies of the clip on YouTube.

Two blogs hosted by The Los Angeles Times have written about the 45-second video, in which Salt Lake City-based Rabbi Benny Zippel, co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Utah, blows the shofar at a party in a city park. About 20 seconds into Zippel’s soundings, a black Labrador identified later as Chewy can be seen walking behind the rabbi. Five seconds later, the animal howls a series of staccato notes in apparent imitation of the shofar.

Speaking earlier this week, Zippel – who in the video, plays off the canine assistance, emphasizing that “it was not a setup, I promise” – said that he was surprised by the video’s popularity.

“I was officiating at a friend’s grandson’s upshernish,” he said, using the Yiddish term for a three-year-old boy’s first haircut. “I blew the shofar for them, because there’s a custom to do so each day in the month before Rosh Hashanah.”

The two-day holiday of Rosh Hashanah begins Friday evening, Sept. 18.