Watch: Dog plays dead in middle of the road, forces owner to pick it up

Commenting on it, an Instagram user wrote, “Something says this is not the first time this has happened as fur face rolled right over knowing dad is about to pick him up. ”.

Another person wrote, “This is so funny and so cute … the owner seems like a very patient guy who loves his dog!!!”. An Instagram user, who minutely observed the dog’s behaviour, wrote, “I love how he got excited to see kids, then immediately laid back down when he realized they weren’t gonna give him attention soo cute”.

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A person recalled how they dealt with similar tantrums by their dog. They wrote, “My dog tried this once. I took the leash off and walked away without looking back. She panicked and ran after me thinking I was really going to leave her ”.

On his website, popular dog behaviourist Cesar Millan Cesar says that dogs often play dead, meaning they just lay on their backs and refuse to move, while they are out and about in an attempt to delay going back home. He explains this tantrum as “a cry for socialisation”.

In August 2019, X user Steph Haberman had shared a similar video from New York. The clip showed a dog lying on its back on the sidewalk as its owner tried hard to convince it to walk. Despite some cajoling and a belly rub, the dog refused to get up.