Is it true that a dog in England was filmed limping in imitation of its owner?

A video has become popular on the Internet about a dog walking next to its owner who has broken his leg and copying his limp. We checked how true this story is.

In January 2021, it spread on social networks video, which shows a man with a cast on his leg and his dog walking down the street. Internet users were both surprised and amused that the dog, following its owner, tucked its paw, imitating the gait of a person. The video quickly became popular, and major British tabloids wrote about the unusual dog. Metro, The Sun And Daily Mail.

Last summer, Briton Russell Jones seriously injured his ankle and, after applying a cast, began walking on crutches. Soon Jones began to notice that his dog, named Billy, was following his owner around the house, tucking his paw. Concerned about his pet, the Briton took him to the vet and had an x-ray done. To the surprise (and joy) of the owner, neither in this nor in any other clinic not found any problems with the dog's health.

Meanwhile, there is a video on social networks and YouTube showing Jones and Billy walking down the street and then turning home. gained millions of views. At the same time, both the owner and the pet are limping. The video became so popular that Jones and his wife were invited to appear on a morning show on the British television channel ITV. They said that Billy only behaves strangely in the presence of Russell. When he is not around, the dog runs across the lawn without any signs of pain in his paw and jumps into the water after a ball. To finally convince the presenters, the couple showed videos filmed in the summer with a playing dog.

Although many people were surprised by this behavior of the dog, for experts it was not something extraordinary. In 2017, a group of French scientists published research on interspecies behavioral synchronization. They found that dogs often mimic their owner's actions, moving or looking in the same direction. In 2011, to similar conclusions came scientists from the University of Vienna. They suggested that owners show their dogs how to open the door: with their head or with their paw. According to the results of the study, animals tended to copy the behavior of humans. Moreover, the case of Russell Jones and Billy the Dog not the only onewhen dogs imitate the gait of their limping owners.

Is it true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. https://youtu.be/eKk02PiD1xM
2. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-12577-z
3. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2010.1142
4. https://youtu.be/r6VrteAxb4U