Dogs At Daycare Try Sparkling Water, Their Reactions Are Everything

A doggy daycare in North Carolina has tested out how their pups would react to the taste of seltzer for a change—and their reactions have left the internet in hysterics.

With so many individual characters coming to The Dog Play Spot in Wilmington each day, the staff certainly love to keep them entertained. Despite what some of the Labradors might think, there's only so many games of fetch that can be had in a day, so the team love finding new ways to keep the dogs busy—including an unexpected taste test.

Grayson Hirtz, yard attendant and co-social media manager at the daycare, told Newsweek that she'd seen another TikTok video of dogs trying sparkling water, and she just had to test it out at her facility too. She joked that many of the dogs have such "goofy personalities," she knew it would lead to some memorable reactions.

She filled a bowl with the sparkling water and let each of the dogs taste it. Dogs like Hurley, Shep and Sully didn't mind the unusual new drink, but the reactions from Joey, Salty, and Abbey showed exactly what they thought of it.

Hurley and Abbey both seemed fascinated by the sparkling water in their bowls. Staff at the doggy daycare were fascinated to see the reactions they'd get, and the dogs did not disappoint. Hurley and Abbey both seemed fascinated by the sparkling water in their bowls. Staff at the doggy daycare were fascinated to see the reactions they'd get, and the dogs did not disappoint. @thedogplayspotwilmington / TikTok

"I didn't expect any of the dogs to necessarily enjoy the sparkling water, but a few of them did and wanted to keep drinking more," Hirtz said. "Some of them were indifferent, and reacted how they would to normal water. And then others (mostly the Labradors) were really taken aback by the sparkling water and splashed it everywhere.

"Labradors tend to drink water with their whole snout because they love water, so the bubbles in the water probably really tickled their noses."

Out of all the reactions she captured, Hirtz says that Finn the chocolate Labrador (nicknamed OG) was her favorite.

However, she was "most surprised" by the dogs who seemed to enjoy the sparkling water, adding that they "must have liked the bubbles," or they just couldn't tell the difference.

"Many of them had just come from playing outside, so the ones that liked it may have just been extra thirsty after running around in the yards," she continued.

Since the clip was shared on TikTok (@thedogplayspotwilmington), it has gone viral with more than 3.1 million views and over 320,700 likes. Internet users can't get enough of the array of different reactions, especially the dogs who "were not a huge fan" of this unusual treat.

As co-social media manager at The Dog Play Spot, Emma Pitney loves capturing these moments and sharing what the dogs get up to at daycare. She told Newsweek that there's been an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the video online as the reactions were "all over the place."

She continued: "Our customers love the videos we post because they get to see behind the scenes of what their dogs get up to at daycare. The comments on the video have been really funny and entertaining to read.

"I wasn't expecting them to necessarily enjoy the taste of sparkling water, but it was surprising how many different reactions we got. My favorite reaction was definitely Joey the tri-colored beagle. He took one taste and immediately ran away."

Needless to say, the dogs and their TikTok followers can't wait to see what Hirtz and Grayson come up with for their next experiment.

The viral TikTok clip has already amassed over 870 comments, as many social media users joked about how relatable they found the reactions. One comment reads: "tbf this is my exact reaction to sparkling water."

Another person added: "the way they look at the water after like it insulted them."

While others lauded Hurley for being so indifferent about it, as one person joked: "Tbh I'm not even sure if Hurley noticed it was spicy water."

Another commenter wrote: "Hurley said give me 14 of them right now."

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