Lab Gets an Acute Case of ‘Fakeritis’ on Walk With His Mama

Sure dogs are sweet and kind, but they also have their tricky side too. Dogs will do pretty much anything to get what they want, even when it's so darn obvious to their human that they're pulling a fast one. Just like a Labrador Retriever who was on a walk with his mama recently. He really thought he had her fooled.

Bruce really didn't want walk time to end. So he tried something sneaky to get it to keep going.

As a video his mama Amy Nicholson posted shows, the two were taking a walk together when Bruce suddenly had a "broken leg." The Labrador Retriever lifted up his paw and hung it loosely. He stopped walking and waited for his mom to notice his "injury."

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"No Bruce," she said from behind the camera. "Bruce come on."

But the Lab didn't budge. He had to sell it!

"You don’t fool me Bruce!" his mama exclaimed in the caption.

People in the comments section were so worried. "I’m a vet and I confirm the leg is in fact broken. Please carry Bruce home and give him lots of treats," joked one person. "My dog does this. Sometimes he forgets what paw hurts and switches between them," someone else shared. "My Chihuahua does this when she wants picking up," another person admitted. "He’s like I really wanted to finish strong but look what just happened," one woman teased.

Dogs Can Be Manipulative

Say it ain't so! There's no way that your precious Rover would ever deceive you to get what it wants — right? Well unfortunately that's not exactly true. According to the CBC, a study published in 2017 showed that dogs do indeed manipulate their humans to get what their heart desires.

The study, published by journal Animal Cognition, stated that dogs can quickly figure out how exactly to get what they want even if it involves trickery. The project was sparked by something that lead author Marianne Heberlein noticed with her own dogs. Heberlein would let her dogs outside to go to the bathroom and when they got back she would give them a treat. Soon she noticed that the dogs were pretending to pee so that they could come back inside and get the treat.

Sadly for all of us, the results of the study found that dogs were able to quickly suss out how to fool a human when tested. It's unclear if they're being deliberatively deceptive, or dogs are just smart and keen to go after what they want. Either way, we wouldn't let this stop you from calling your dog your BFF. Just make sure you keep an eye out whenever there's food or walkies involved.

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