KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 ― A pet golden retriever in Louisiana, United States, has been praised for helping its two family members home after they went missing.

The dog ― Artemis ― assisted in a community-wide search and rescue crew in locating sisters Abigail and Cecilia Bourg after they wandered into the woods in Folsom.

The girls' father Justin told WWL-TV that his daughters, ages seven and four, were found after a four-hour search of the area and 1.9 kilometres away from their home, People reported.

"Abigail was laying on top of Artemis holding his collar and just snuggled up with him, and CC (Cecilia) was laying with her head on Abigail's stomach, and they were just kind of dug in for the night,” he said

In a Facebook post, the girls' mother Mary said Artemis heard people coming and started barking, making it much easier to find them.

"He even growled at the police at first because he was protecting our babies,” she wrote in the post.

Mary added in the post that while the experience still shakes Cecilia up, both sisters were doing well.