Woman puzzled by dog’s odd obsession – and canine gets grumpy when it’s taken away

German shepherd Sasha is part of the YouTube monkey subgenre and will bark or paw at her owners until they play monkey-themed videos to her on repeat in the evenings

Everybody has an obsession with something – whether it’s a sport, book series or television show.

But it seems animals can have obsessions too.

One dog owner has shared her dog’s special interest, claiming she becomes grumpy when her owners stop her from getting her ‘daily fix’.

Speaking to Reddit, the woman explained how her German shepherd is obsessed with watching monkey videos on YouTube.

She said: “A few months ago I was watching some adorable monkey videos on YouTube when Sasha, our two-year-old dog, came in and she was immediately hooked.

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“She was so engrossed in the videos she sat through three wagging her tail the whole time. She even seemed annoyed when I had enough and flipped to something else.

“A few days later, I mention it to my partner and he wanted to see if it was really the monkeys or just a small animal on the screen.

“After testing her with other small animal videos like squirrels, we discovered it’s definitely the monkeys.”

Unable to ever meet her dog’s monkey needs, the woman says Sasha will non-stop bark at her until she plays monkey videos on her phone.

“It’s gotten to the point that in the evening when we are watching something she will bark and paw us until we either change to her monkey videos,” she added.

“She then will happily lay down and watch her video. Although if it’s on the phone she tries to lick it and pauses it. When that happens she paws us to unpause it for her.

“Now when we need to distract her for a few minutes we ask her if she wants to watch monkeys. She runs to our bed where we do the majority of our TV watching.”

Puzzled by her dog’s interest in monkeys, the woman has asked other Reddit user whether their dogs have an unusual obsession.

One user said: “My dog loves watching videos of other dogs hiking in the woods. It probably reminds her of her own adventures.”

Another added: “My dog can also watch TV and he loves all of the videos with any kind of bugs.

“He tries to look behind the TV to find the animal or he will look to the side of the TV when the camera pans to find his new buddy.

“But he always gets too excited and you have to play with him for a bit because he gets all wound up tight – like a cat when you pet them too much.”

A third said: “Maybe she recognises their humanness? How does she respond to videos of human infants? Perhaps she thinks they must be human ‘puppies’? Utterly adorable either way. My dog loves seeing any kind of animal on TV.”

Does your dog have an unusual obsession? Email paige.freshwater@reachplc.com.