Humans may rely on calculators and spreadsheets, but dogs seem to have a system of their own when it comes to numbers and time. For them, minutes stretch into hours, toys double or disappear without reason, and mealtime is the ultimate measurement of the day. One German Shepherd, Benson, has become the face of this canine arithmetic after his owner shared a video introducing the internet to “dog math.”
German Shepherd explains what ‘dog math’ is with examples in video
The video, which has already reached more than 3.5 million viewers and racked up 185K likes, uses a robotic voiceover to break down Benson’s unique calculations. It begins by joking, “We’ve had boy math and girl math — now we have dog math.”
The first rule of Benson’s math is all about his toys. When he has 15 balls to play with, but one rolls under the couch, his logic tells him he suddenly has zero balls. The clip shows him completely fixated on the one missing toy while ignoring the others in plain sight.
Time, according to Benson, is equally skewed. If his owner leaves for three hours, Benson counts it as three hours. But if the absence is only three minutes, he still believes it equals three hours. His dinner schedule follows a similar formula. Dinner is at 5 p.m., no exceptions. If food is served at 5:03, Benson interprets the delay as two full hours. Even if his owner offers dinner early at 4, Benson’s math still counts it as late.
Benson also applies his math to affection. After receiving an hour of pets, Benson concludes that when the petting stops, he has actually received zero pets, which must mean his owner doesn’t love him anymore. Toys also come under his system — two identical ones don’t count as two in Benson’s book, just one. Finally, when a dog passes by outside the house, Benson dramatically equates it to “40 dragons” threatening his home.
Fans quickly jumped in with their own interpretations of Benson’s formulas. One joked, “I wonder how he calculates the treats,” hinting that snack math might be a subject all on its own. Another brushed it off with, “Sounds about right to me,” as though Benson’s numbers were beyond question. Meanwhile, a cat owner chimed in, “Dog math is nothing compared to multiple cats math.” Rounding it off, another fan awarded the pup top honors with a “dogchelors degree in maths.” Indeed, Benson is “very good at math,” as his owner notes in the video’s caption.
