Dog Pretending to Be 'Invisible' to Stay on Owners' Bed Melts Hearts

A dog ignoring its owner and pretending to be "invisible and deaf" has gone viral on TikTok.

The video, credited to TikToker @aliciam336, was shared from the TikTok account of a Staffordshire bull terrier dog—often nicknamed as "Staffy"—known as Sonny (@sonnystaffy), where it has received over 306,000 views and more than 25,000 likes at the time of writing.

The video shows the dog sitting still and staring straight ahead, at the top of a bed next to the head of a person in it. A message overlaid on the video read: "When you aren't allowed on the bed so you pretend you're invisible and deaf."

The video post was shared with the caption: "if I don't look at them then it's not happening [crying laughing emoji] #fyp #fypシ #foryou #foryoupage #foryoupageofficiall #staffy #staffie #dogsoftiktok."

In a comment in the post that got 364 likes, @sonnystaffy wrote: "Sonny has his own big comfy bed right near ours. We wrap him in woolen blankets at night as he hates clothes. Don't be fooled—he is well loved! [crying laughing emojis]."

Dogs are incredibly intelligent animals but are they smart enough to trick humans? According to a March 2017 study in peer-reviewed journal Animal Cognition, dogs can "adjust their behavior" and "use tactical deception."

Marianne Heberlein, an author of the study who studies dog cognition at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, said she was inspired to conduct the study by watching her own dogs. One of them sometimes pretends to spot something of interest in the backyard in a bid to get the other dog to forfeit its prime sleeping spot. "This sort of thing happens quite often, but it is not well studied," she told the New Scientist at the time.

The study saw dogs experience being around their "cooperative" owner as well as two unfamiliar people, with one of them acting "cooperatively" by giving them food, while the other was "competitive" and kept the food for themselves.

The dogs were given the option of leading these people to one of three potential food locations, one of which contained a favored food item, while the other had a non-preferred food item and the third location remained empty.

The study found that the dogs were able to distinguish between "the cooperative and the competitive partner." They led the cooperative partner to the preferred food box more often than the competitive partner. The competitive partner was led less often to the preferred food and more often to the empty box than the cooperative partner.

"They showed an impressive flexibility in behavior," Heberlein told the New Scientist. "They're not just sticking to a strict rule, but thinking about what different options they have."

Several TikTokers were delighted by the seemingly deceptive dog in the latest viral video.

In a comment that got 947 likes, user Shannon Dickinson wrote: "This is a case of 'but dad lets me [on] the bed when [you're] not home'."

User Nae chimed in, writing: "Just don't make eye contact and everything will be fine [crying laughing emoji]."

User rogercara1967 added "he doesn't have to get down, cos it's his bed, so U get down mum [crying laughing emojis]."

User kim said: "that's adorable. He has to stay [crying laughing emojis], while user Demicccc wrote: "Nothing to see here [crying laughing emojis]."

Newsweek contacted @sonnystaffy for comment.