A video from a doggy daycare in New Zealand shows a dog pausing his play to focus on something he seemed to recognize before seeing it, a moment that has captured the internet’s heart.
Sam, the golden retriever, has been attending Duke’s Dog Daycare for a couple of years, a representative told Newsweek. He’s become comfortable with the employees, always wagging his tail and sharing his love. As a regular, Sam started to recognize the employees’ scents, with one, in particular, standing out to him.
Dogs rely heavily on scent—a canine’s strongest sense—to recognize familiar people, and research suggests those smells carry emotional meaning. A study published in the journal Behavioural Processes found that dogs’ brains show stronger neural responses to the scent of familiar humans than to unfamiliar odors, suggesting canines can identify and positively associate specific people through scent alone.
In a January 4 Instagram video posted to @dukesdogdaycare, Sam appeared to use his super sniffer to detect that his “favorite human,” who works at the daycare, was nearby. He stood on an outdoor table, attempting to free his nose from the other dogs’ scents, and sniffed the air several times, seemingly confirming that his nose had not deceived him.
The person filming zoomed in on Sam, who continued to sniff with a giant smile, ignoring the other canines playing below.
The text overlaid on the video compares the moment to how people say they “can’t wait to see” someone, but this is what real excitement looks like. Sam used his entire body, from the tip of his tail to his nose, showing anticipation for his person.
“Sam loves hard, so he is always happy to see his favourite people!” the representative said. “It’s very sweet to watch their relationship.”
The daycare later shared the video with Sam’s owner, who was delighted by the moment and thrilled that Sam loves the workers and attending daycare.
As of Tuesday, the video had reached over 68,500 views on Instagram.
“The bestest doggos,” wrote a viewer.
Another added, “I work at a daycare. When I’m out with the,m I can hear a car door slam, can’t see the driver, then one dog starts running around, and I know they’re the ones leaving.”
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