Was This Doberman's Tackle on A French Bulldog NFL-Legal?

No one really knows how to judge the efficacy and legality of an NFL tackle, and every Sunday's NFL games are proof of this. If we're going to get to the bottom of this problem, we need to be willing to think outside the box. For instance: why not use Dog Vines as a simulator? After all, dogs are already going to be doing some dangerous, stupid shit around each other, and people are going to make Vines out of it. We might as well use these kinds of incidents as teachable moments.

Let's just postulate that the French Bulldog here is going up in the air to catch a pass and the ball is somewhere out of the camera's view—somewhere either below or behind the camera—when he is obliterated by the Unidentified Doberman Type Dog. Honestly, it's hard to tell what the French Bulldog is doing, so it isn't that much of a stretch to frame the incident through the rules of a legal NFL tackle:

Holding

Dogs don't have opposable thumbs, so this one is near impossible.

Ruling: Next.

Leading with the Helmet / Targeting

Hard to say if this is spearing or not. Though the Doberman (let's call him Odie) is leading with his head, the French Bulldog (let's call him Pierre) is the first to initiate contact with his paw. Pierre seems to be enacting something of a ball-less stiff arm, rendering Odie's tackle pretty harmless in the spearing department. Also, let's not forget that dogs are basically just heads with limbs to mobilize that head—they are always leading with the head.

Ruling: nay on targeting/leading with the helmet.

Horse Collar

Pierre doesn't seem to be wearing a collar, and Odie's hands (paws) are effectively tucked away. No horses appear in this Vine.

Ruling: No horse collar.

Out of Bounds

If a dog can pee anywhere it wants, everything is in bounds.

Ruling: Contact initiated in bounds.

Defenseless Receiver

Pierre is certainly going for a pass here and this is where things get sticky. Because he is going up (well, and then down) for a pass, Odie is tackling him in a defenseless position. It's fair to say, though, that Odie's momentum is carrying him, and that Odie is probably not even cognizant of the fact that he is tackling Pierre. So this complicates things even further. But saying "whoops, I didn't know I was discharging a gun" doesn't mean you can just shoot someone. So I'd say that Odie is tackling Pierre in a defenseless position.

Ruling: Illegal hit.

Putting aside the fact that Odie the cornerback is roughly 5x the body mass of Pierre the wide receiver—and that their proportions distort our impression of the severity of the incident—it's fair to say that Odie indeed is tackling when Pierre is defenseless. Plus, based on the look on Pierre's face on the way down, it seems like he knows something untoward just happened to him. Flag on the play.