This is the terrifying moment pet dogs confronted a wild elephant before it smashed through a garden gate.

Homeowner Arun Moolta discovered the broken barrier in the morning and checked his surveillance camera to find out what had happened.

CCTV footage shows three dogs barking at the passing tusker in Chonburi, Thailand.

Agitated by the noise, the pachyderm suddenly charged at the dogs, using its trunk to break the wooden gate and sending two planks flying to the ground on June 8.

The startled dogs quickly retreated as the elephant calmly walked away.

Thailand has up to 3,500 elephants in the wild. The population has been increasing in recent years, but it is still a fraction of the estimated 300,000 wild elephants that lived in the country at the beginning of the 20th century.

The main threats to wild elephants in Thailand are habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, and conflict with humans.