Remus the dog is the ultimate ‘Harry Potter’ fan: he’s named after the Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher, has his own wizard-inspired wardrobe and the longhaired mini dachshund responds only to ‘Harry Potter’-inspired commands.
When his owner, YouTuber Anna Brisbin, says ‘Stupefy’, Remus drops and lies down. When she says ‘Wingardium Leviosa’ he stands on his hind legs, as if floating in the air.
‘Avada Kedavra’, the spell known for killing people, makes him spin around before lying down on the floor, showing his belly. Meanwhile ‘Serpensortia’ – our personal favourite – results in the adorable pup sticking his tongue out. (Although we think that might be pure coincidence.)
Brisbin, who is a voiceover and screen actress, clearly has a lot of time on her hands, but we’re 100% here for it. She told HuffPost UK she’s been training Remus since he was two months old.
“I took him to a group puppy obedience class and also a one-on-one training course for a couple weeks,” she said. “Through those two courses, I figured out the best way for him to learn different commands – we go with the word ‘yes’ and a treat.”
Brisbin’s dad is also a dog trainer in South Carolina, so she knows the score when it comes to teaching young dogs new tricks. “The easiest and quickest command for him to learn was ‘Stupefy’ for down,” she said. “Next was ‘Wingardium Leviosa’ for jump/stand.
“The rest has been a lot of trial and error and some of them still definitely aren’t solid all the time. We’re still working hard at ‘Confundus’ to spin in donuts, and some commands, like ‘Aguamenti’ for pee, were just jokes I knew were about to happen.”