It’s Novak DOG-ovich! Clever dog Leo adds playing tennis to his impressive list of skills in adorable video
- Leo the cocker spaniel has been showing off his ‘natural’ abilities playing tennis
- The two-year-old pooch lives in Aberdeen, Scotland, with owner Emily Anderson
- His skill with the racket was discovered after he learned to use a ping pong bat
- Ms Anderson, who works as a dog trainer, was shocked he mastered it first time
- The dog has already been taught to do CPR, and learns a new trick every week
This is the moment a clever dog showed off his hidden talents by playing tennis with his owner in an adorable video.
Leo the cocker spaniel, who lives in Aberdeen with his owner Emily Anderson, had already impressed her by showing an aptitude for ping pong.
But she was surprising when the two-year-old pooch picked up a tennis racket in his mouth and started returned the first ball she threw at him.
Leo the cocker spaniel, from Aberdeen, Scotland, has wowed his owner with his ‘hidden ability’ with a tennis racket
Emily Anderson (pictured) bought Leo a tennis racket after he got to grips with ping pong
She was surprised when he picked up the racket in his mouth and began to return balls when she threw them at him
Footage shared on the pair’s Instagram page, @trickspaniel, shows Leo holding the tennis racket in his mouth and leaping at tennis balls as Ms Anderson throws them.
After he returns the ball he reverses to get straight back into position for the next throw.
Ms Anderson has been building the dog’s tennis skills since first seeing his potential with a table tennis bat.
The 31-year-old bought a tennis racket for him and was stunned when the clever canine picked it up in his mouth straight away.
She said: ‘He’s a natural. I ordered the tennis racket with a short handle. It arrived, I unpacked it and gave the racket to him.
An adorable video showing the clever pooch in action was shared by Ms Anderson on their Instagram page, @trickspaniel
Ms Anderson, 31, said she didn’t think the two-year-old dog would manage at first as the ball is so heavy
‘I was round at a friend’s house and we were speaking about what else we can do with Leo.
‘She said ‘tennis’, I didn’t think he’d manage as the ball is so heavy.
‘As with ping pong I asked him to back away, showed him the ball, threw it at him and he hit it for the first time.
‘He just knew what he was doing, it really surprised me.
‘I sat there for five minutes, like ‘what the hell just happened?”
He might not be able to play at Wimbledon, but his tennis development shows no sign of slowing down.
‘I’m not sure if it’ll work but we’re going to try and get him to hit it over [a tennis] net,’ Ms Anderson said.
‘He learnt to play ping pong last May. It’s very similar to ping pong but a totally different shaped racket to fit in his mouth.
It was no problem for Leo, who seems to be a natural when it comes to the sport, although he might not make it to Wimbledon anytime soon
It’s another skill to add to his bow, with the dog already having learned how to do CPR and play the xylophone
‘He does flyball and the balls we used were from that, so I thought it’d distract him a bit and he’d catch it in his mouth but he didn’t.
‘I thought he was going to spit out the racket and go for the ball.
‘He’s got a hidden talent I didn’t know about. From the early days of teaching him tricks, he just picks up stuff really quickly.
‘He might not quite give Andy Murray or Rafael Nadal a run for his money but it’s fun. It makes people smile.’
She says other dog owners have started asking her for her training secrets after being inspired by Leo’s skills.
The pair train three times a day, with Ms Anderson saying Leo is ‘so incredibly happy’ when he’s practising
Their tennis video on Instagram has been viewed more than 52,500 times and received more than 1,900 likes.
Emily said: ‘I’ve had quite a few messages asking how I trained it but I didn’t really, I just handed him the racket.
‘We normally train three times a day for roughly 10 minutes. If he’s had a big walk, we do skip it, but normally it’s three times a day.’
It’s all in a day’s work for Leo, who can add it to his already impressive list of skills and abilities.
Ms Anderson has already taught Leo how to paint and even perform CPR.
She says her clever dog often learns tricks in only 20 minutes, and sometimes does it so quickly she has to watch it back in slow motion to figure out how he has done it.
Among other skills he has gained is the ability to play the xylophone, with Ms Anderson revealing his training really went to the next level when the country went into lockdown at the start of the Covid pandemic.
‘I knew he’d always enjoyed his training so I decided to focus on doing a bit more of that with him and that’s how the tricks started,’ she said.
‘The first thing we did was roll a blanket and then stack the rings and it just snowballed from there.’
She added that he is ‘so incredibly happy’ when he trains, and will often wake himself up later ‘by wagging his tail so much’.
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