Dachshund who barked at a mannequin now curls up in its lap

Dino's family bought a bald mannequin, dressed it in a grey hoodie and Grinch-print pyjama pants, and sat it on the couch for the times the long-haired dachshund has to stay home alone. "We bought this fake person to help with my dogs separation anxiety," his owner wrote. Then the family went out and let the home cam judge the experiment.

Watch Dino's home-cam test on TikTok (@dinoandluka)

On the footage, Dino stands in the mannequin's lap with his muzzle to its face, a moment the family labelled "*giving him kisses*." Then he curls up across its legs, where, they wrote, "he laid on top of him the whole time."

The mannequin was a last resort. In a follow-up video, Dino's owner said she had "tried everything. Nothing worked," and was candid about where the idea came from: "I saw this on TikTok actually. I didn't invent this." She and her boyfriend dressed it in their own clothes, then introduced it "like if someone were to come in through the door."

Dino did not warm to it straight away. In a later video of that first meeting, the family wrote that "he barked at him for a good 30 minutes".

The trick depends on a little stagecraft. She explained that the mannequin only comes out when Dino is about to be left alone, and in a reply on the video she described its exit: they "walk out the door with him like if he was an actual human then sneak him back in." The goal, she wrote in another reply, is modest: "We just want to go to the movies sometimes."

It isn't the first time the family has gone big on Dino's behalf. In a May video, they explained that he "was a little lonely, and needed a friend," so he got a little brother, Luka, who grew into a Great Dane "the size of a horse."

His owner hasn't claimed to understand any of it. "I don't know if it's going to continue working. I don't know what he's thinking," she said in August, after three successful tries. By late September, the mannequin was still on the couch in the same hoodie and Grinch pants, and Dino was still sitting in its lap.

To see more of Dino and Luka, you can follow @dinoandluka on TikTok.