Take Five With These Viral Videos
A splash pad vs. a puppy, a bear down a slide, a pizza tax, and more!
Every week in our Friday newsletter, the “viral video” is consistently the most clicked link—so we’re keeping the joy coming. Here are five fun, furry, and occasionally fascinating videos to watch this week, each with a little behavior spin.
Kick back, enjoy, and let us know what you think. And PS: we love when you send us your favorites too!
🐶 Viral Video 1: The Puppy vs. The Splash Pad
A little warm-weather enrichment to start us off. This video gets points for sheer cuteness, but also for what it teaches us:
Not all enrichment needs to involve food.
It’s so easy to weave our own tale about what a dog’s behavior means, but watching behavior and conditions over time will tell the real story.
Throughout the video, the puppy backs away from the water that shoots up. So often when a dog moves away from something, we want to tell a story about how the dog dislikes the thing. Sometimes that is true. But in this case, the puppy is voluntarily and repeatedly behaving to make that stream of water shoot up (which the puppy then backs away from). A perfect reminder to observe closely and avoid jumping to conclusions too quickly.
🐻 Viral Video 2: Down the Slide!
This bear knew exactly what they were doing. They climb the play set like a pro and then zoom—face-first—down the slide. I’d put money on this not being the bear’s first rodeo with a play set. We often focus on ourselves as the sole shapers of our dogs’ behavior. But videos like this are a great reminder: it’s the environment that is the shaper of behavior. Sometimes we’re a part of it. Sometimes we’re not. Behavior doesn’t always revolve around us.
🐦 Viral Video 3: Birds + Dog Fur = Gold
