Owner’s White Lie About Dog When He Misbehaves in Public Melts Hearts

Dogs can be as smart as human toddlers, and it’s normal for them to throw a tantrum every now and then, no matter how much we try to discipline them.

A dog owner from western New York has left viewers on social media laughing after revealing the white lie she tells people whenever her dog misbehaves in public.

In a video shared Saturday on TikTok under the username thelittlesanctuary, she says that whenever her dog, Queso, misbehaves in front of other people she tells them that he’s been recently adopted and adapting to his new life. In fact, he’s been with his family for over five years now.

A caption shared with the clip says: “When my dog misbehaves in public I tell people we just adopted him form a shelter, even through we adopted him when he was 10 weeks old in 2018 and this is all our fault.”

The poster told Newsweek that they adopted Queso from a shelter in December 2018 and were told that he was about 10 weeks old and is a cane corso mix. She is not entirely sure that’s the case because he only weighs about 85 pounds.

She said: “I’m not sure if they just wanted to steer clear of calling him a pit mix due to stereotyping. We haven’t done his DNA yet. Either way, he’s perfect.”

The poster went on: “Queso is 5 years young. He has seven, soon to be eight, siblings that he lives with: two cats, three goats and two sheep. He does amazingly with them. It took the cats a while to warm up to him, but he helped foster-parent my bottle baby lambs when they lived in the house. He is a great farm dog and couch potato.

She also said that Queso is extremely social. He loved socializing with people and dogs when she used to work at a brewery and took him along.

“If anything, we say we oversocialized him because now when we take him out in public he will just whine at us until he gets to visit with everyone. We have to remind him that not everyone wants big dog kisses. In my video, I mentioned that he ‘misbehaves,’ and that is what I’m referring to. He can be very needy for attention and would hop into any stranger’s van.”

She continued: “I also feel like I should clarify, as I had a few comments that mistook my video for something negative. I have only adopted from shelters, and I used to work with shelter dogs. I never intended for my video to be a dig towards shelter dogs in any way. It was mainly a joke saying, “He’s new here.” I would never want to deter people from adopting shelter dogs. He’s just spoiled rotten, and I know it’s because of us.”

There are degrees of misbehavior in dogs, according to VCA Animal Hospitals, and some pets are within the normal range for their age and breed. One example is digging, which in moderation is normal for all dogs. But it can become a problem when they do it excessively, maybe out of anxiety or boredom, and destroy the garden or injure their paws.

Each year, 6.3 million pets enter U.S. shelters, which is an average of 17,260 a day, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The number of dogs and cats taken in by pet shelters hit 46,807 in January 2023, an increase of 1,744 compared with January 2022, 24Petwatch’s Shelter Watch Report found.

About 920,000 surrendered animals are euthanized every year. Shelters are striving to minimize euthanasia rates by promoting adoption campaigns, spaying and neutering programs and behavior rehabilitation.

The video quickly went viral on TikTok and has so far received over 2.9 million views and 462,400 likes.

One user, 19711997, commented: “Just adopted mine in 2011. He’s adjusting.”

And Ethan wrote: “Sometimes no matter how much you train they are gonna be dogs and that’s ok.”

Nunya Beeswax added: “I used to refer to my son as my nephew in public and blame his behavior on my sister.”

Newsweek reached out to thelittlesanctuary for comment via TikTok chat and could not verify the details of the case.

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