Dog reacts to owner's fake choking in an unexpected way: 'Certified dogter'

 A dog trainer decided to test her pooch’s lifesaving skills by pretending to choke, but she didn’t expect him to try and solve her dilemma with a knife.

The moment, which was captured in a viral TikTok video by The Deecken Dogs, shows dog owner Haley Deecken and her valiant pet, Dunkin, reacting to the situations that were dealt to them.

Deecken captioned the 41-second clip with: "Why he whip it out like that."

The clip shows Deecken feign a choke and drop to the floor as she tries to convince Dunkin that something is wrong.

Dunkin walks over to Deecken and briefly investigates the situation with inquisitive sniffs, licks and paw taps. When Deecken fails to react to his checkup, Dunkin turns around and grabs a knife from behind a kitchen counter with his mouth.

Deecken jumps up to avoid the knife-wielding dog, who continues to circle around her. She eventually retrieves the knife from Dunkin after she evades his circling.

The video has gotten 16.9 million views since its original upload Thursday, Sept. 9.

Tens of thousands of TikTok users have expressed their thoughts about what appears to be a prank that went wrong. 

Many commenters found the video to be humorous, including some of TikTok’s top verified creators.

"’Finally nows my chance,’" TikTok creator and songwriter Jax joked in reference to Dunkin’s behavior.

"He wanted to create an air hole," wrote YouTube comedian Tevin Musara. "He’s a certified dogter."

"I really want to know what he planning to do with a knife," pondered lifestyle YouTuber Iamozie.

Other TikTok users were skeptical about Dunkin’s knife grab because the video doesn’t clearly show where he could have gotten the knife from. 

But Deecken told that Dunkin’s ability and reaction were authentic since he has been trained to retrieve the knife from an area he can easily reach. 

"He did grab it from a cubby built in the cabinet. No one handed it to him," Deecken wrote in an Instagram direct message. 

"The trick isn’t for protection, it’s a fun party trick," she added. "When I want him to get it for laughs on command, I tell him, ‘Dunkin, [people] are talking about you,’ in which he goes and grabs it from the handle. Dunkin has been specially trained for stunts like that, and the knife is too dull to cause damage. I would never put him at risk."

Dunkin’s grabbing of the knife still came as a surprise since the Labrador-Staffordshire Bull Terrier mix typically performs the stunt with a vocal command.

As for going viral on TikTok, Deecken told : "I enjoy making videos like that to make people happy in whatever way I can."