Laughter at Police Checking if Border Collie Is Over the Limit: 'Busted'

A video of a dog being tested by police for possibly "drinking" while on the road has gone viral on TikTok.

The clip was posted by Holly Rose (@hollyyrosex) and has had over 821,000 views since it was first shared on Tuesday.

The footage shows a border collie sitting near the open window of a car while a police officer on the side of a road holds a device against the pup's nose. A beeping sound is heard as the canine appears to sniff the device before pulling his head away from it.

A caption shared with the post simply reads: "He's been drink'n."

A voice in the clip asks: "Is he [the dog] alright?" The police officer replies: 'I don't know, he's been drinking," as laughter is heard in the background before the video ends.

It's understandable that the canine was keen to sniff the device held by the policeman because the sense of smell is "a principle sensory modality for dogs," said a January 2020 study in the International Journal of Comparative Psychology.

The study, which was conducted using a natural body odor captured on a T-shirt, found that "dogs habituated to a familiar odor and dishabituated to an unfamiliar odor."

A June 2015 article published by Cesars Way, the website of American dog behaviorist Cesar Milan, known from the television series Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan, said that smell is "the most significant way that dogs interact with the world," noting that "having a sniff around allows canines to know where things are and what they are."

In a September 2020 article for Psychology Today, Daniel Marston, a licensed psychologist specializing in cognitive-behavioral therapy, noted that smell "plays a major role in how dogs recognize others," allowing them to determine which are "familiar and safe" and "who might be a danger" as well as which animals are members of other species.

'I've Been Drinking'

Users on TikTok loved the video, with it receiving over 144,000 likes and 200 comments.

One user, helen, noted: "Dog be answering: yes officer, I've been drinking water," as Ella Pricolo wrote: "Someone had been drinking."

User we3kingsau said: "The doggo looking stressed waiting for the result," while robman2095 wrote: "Busted because he can't count to ten though."

Sprinting_Kiwis: "I did a breath test once but my dog came up and the machine picked up his breath instead of mine, gave us all a good laugh."

Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via TikTok. This video has not been independently verified.

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