An adorable – and very intelligent – dog has gone viral for his sneaky playtime techniques; he drops his toys over his fence so that passersby will be tempted to play with him.
Johnny Berchtold, an actor from Los Angeles, California, filmed the neighborhood dog named Riley while he performed his trick of forlornly dropping his ball.
Posting the video to Twitter, Berchtold said: “This good wall-doggo dropped his ballo but fear not I returned it to him and thanked him for his service."
Berchtold explained that Riley hangs over the fence every morning to play with passers-by, with his owners even leaving a place mat on the fence so he won't hurt himself.
He said: “Early September, my two good friends Tom and Nicole were getting married, so I spent a lot of time around their apartment. One morning, we were waiting outside of their place for the wedding-event of the day, and I saw Riley from a distance.
“I obviously freaked out, because the sight of him was just strikingly cute. I didn't even realise he had a ball in his mouth until I started filming him… It was quite obvious that he expected someone to lend him a hand, because he looked directly at me and waited there until someone came to his rescue."
The video was re-posted by popular dog critiquing Twitter account WeRateDogs, who gave Riley a whopping score of 14 out of 10.
The re-post by WeRateDogs reached over 45,000 retweets on the website.
Berchtold said: “Apparently, he is very popular in the neighborhood, and nearly everyone knows him as the friendly neighborhood dog."
"Sometimes when you pet him while he's on the ledge, he wraps his arms around you so you won't stop or leave," he added.
"I haven't seen the dog since, but Tom and Nicole see him daily. I'm excited to go pay him a visit so I can let him know that all of the internet wants to play ball with him."
Several people could attest to Riley's stardom and tactics:
Clearly the world needs more Riley:
One person even wrote a short poem on behalf of Riley and his simple request for play:
And while Riley may not make you more productive if you're trying to get somewhere, perhaps it's for the best:
Berchtold is clearly thrilled for Riley's success, adding: “I'm psyched, considering that Riley deserves all of the love. It's just one of those things that I am happy is out in the world to inspire a smile."
We'd have to agree.
A version of this article originally appeared on Press Association.
Jane Rosenberg
Jane Rosenberg
@arianagrande/Instagram
@arianagrande/Instagram