What is the authenticity of the narration about the Prophet seeing a dog suckling its puppies, and his fear that the army would crush them, so he ordered Ju‘ayl ibn Suraqa to guard them?

The story that states the Prophet (peace be upon him) ordered the protection of a dog and its puppies during his travels was narrated by Al-Waqidi with a broken chain of transmission (sanad munqati’) from Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr ibn Hazm. Therefore, it is a mursal (missing a Companion in the chain) and weak narration according to the majority of scholars. Nevertheless, there are multiple authentic legal texts that encourage showing mercy to animals and being kind to them. These include hadiths about the reward for giving water to a thirsty animal, about showing mercy to a sheep being a reason for Allah's mercy, and about Allah forgiving a man who gave water to a dog panting from thirst.