Blind Dog Has Best Reaction to Meeting Horse for the First Time: ‘Whiplash’

A blind dog had the most heartwarming of reactions after encountering a horse for the first time.

Blind dogs have a unique perspective on the world and people around them. In a telephone survey of 50 pet owners with blind dogs conducted as part of a study for the Veterinary Record, 27 said they noted their canines adopted a more cautious approach to the environment around them and stayed in closer contact with their owner.

They also noticed that their dogs tended to manage their blindness with an “obvious compensatory reliance” on other senses like hearing and smell.

All of which is worth keeping in mind when watching the video of Everest, a blind dog who recently went viral thanks to a clip of her encountering a dog for the first time.

At the time of writing, the clip, which was posted under the handle mbear2006, had been watched close to 600,000 times, with viewers suitably charmed by Everest’s adorable reaction to a new animal. You can watch the footage here.

In the video, Everest can be seen standing by a gate behind which a horse is visible. Despite the distance between the two, it’s clear Everest can smell something different in the air and she doesn’t quite know what it is.

On the clip, the pet pooch can be seen shaking her head from side to side, sticking her snout into the air, as if trying to work out what the smell might be. According to the onscreen caption accompanying the clip, the horse “suddenly” appeared in Everest’s otherwise quiet suburban town.

“What is it, Everest?” his owner asks, laughing, on the video. Whatever it is, Everest can’t quite shake the feeling it’s something special and continues to move her head from side to side throughout the 16-second clip.

The caption accompanying the TikTok post jokes: “Everest meets her first horse and practically gets whiplash from the head tilts!”

Everest’s owner is not the only one suitably amused by his adorable head movements with fellow dog lovers on TikTok quick to comment on the very same thing. “I’ve never seen a dog head tilt so intensely,” one writes. Another jokes that she “had to tilt her head 35 times just to make sure she was seeing that right.”

Another viewer suggested that Everest wasn’t actually reacting to the smell of the horse but was instead using another of her remaining senses. “He’s trying real hard to hear what that thing is doing,” they said.

Elsewhere, one suggested it was just a dog responding to “mysterious smells and sounds” in the only way they know how.

Whatever the case, Everest was winning hearts and minds on social media thanks to her adorable response. “I’ve never seen a pup tilt their head this extreme,” one viewer reflected. “So cute.”

Newsweek reached out to mbear2006 for comment.