A cane corso has been filmed trying to make a swift exit from a pet store with a new toy even though his owner had not yet paid for it.
Maritza Barona, a nurse and mother in Texas, took to TikTok to share footage showing how her four-legged friend, Max, attempted to use his "scary dog privilege" to steal a new chewy tug-of-war toy.
In the clip, Barona can be heard repeatedly calling Max to come back, telling him "we gotta pay for it" as he tries to make a quick escape. At first, Max appears unmoved, evidently confident of his claim to the toy.
Thankfully, he eventually relents and heads back inside, but Barona was left wondering what might have happened if she had not been there to intervene.
"Seems like he didn't wanna pay at all," she wrote under the clip.
Even when he's back in the store, Max does not want to let go of the toy, prompting an off-screen cashier to suggest removing the label and putting it through the cash register to end the standoff.
Though Max may be enthralled with his new plaything now, research suggests our canine friends can be a fickle bunch when it comes to their toys.
In a 2008 study published in the scientific journal Animal Cognition, 17 dogs were familiarized with two different objects. As part of the experiment, researchers played with the dogs and the two objects to boost their interest. The canines were then presented with a choice of three different toys: the two objects they had earlier explored and a new toy.
Despite mixing up the lineups and introducing new objects in each test, the dogs repeatedly chose to pick up or sniff the new object. In fact, the unfamiliar object was chosen in 38 of the 50 tests.
So while Max may be enamored with his pull toy now, so much so that he would be willing to attempt daylight dog robbery, it may only be temporary.
Not that anyone watching the video was all that bothered by his behavior. The video, which has racked up 7.8 million views, has instead proved to be a source of much amusement.
"The dog is gangster for that," one TikToker said.
Another imagined Max saying: "They can't arrest the dog right?" A third quipped: "He was trying to teach you how to save money," while a fourth added: "The amount of money we spend at the store, he deserves a free toy!"
Barona joined in on the joking. "He made me an accomplice," she wrote in response to one commenter. "He was upset [because] he was being dog profiled," she joked in a reply to another.
Max is not the first cane corso to captivate dog lovers online lately. A video showing another dog of the same breed playing peekaboo with his owner was similarly popular, as was a clip of a fellow cane corso finding out the family car had a sunroof.
Cane corsos are more than capable of living up to the "scary dog" tag Barona mentioned in her video. A recent viral clip shows how two of the dogs reacted to an intruder.
Newsweek has contacted Barona for comment.
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