Being a tiny animal with zero life experience must be exhausting. One minute you’re just trying to conquer a flight of stairs, and the next, you realize there’s a fuzzy tail attached to you that you’ve never seen before. That’s exactly what happened to Hank over at @hankriedlbauer.
This little Labrador puppy was supposed to be practicing climbing up and down steps. But he ended up having a complete existential crisis instead. He’s just sitting there on the landing, probably wondering why the world is so steep and why his own body parts are suddenly acting suspicious.
Labrador puppy gets distracted by his tail while learning the stairs
Hank starts off pretty annoyed. He’s barking at the stairs like they are an insurmountable puzzle. His mom is just there filming. But then? A total plot twist. He does a double-take. Like, wait. What is that? It’s the funniest thing in the video because this Labrador puppy looks genuinely shocked that he’s been carrying this tail around since November and just now noticed it. The stairs are officially old news.
Then the spinning starts. He straightens it out, stares it down, and when it falls, he’s off. Typical Lab energy — all chunky paws and zero coordination. He spins a few times, sits down, and looks up at the ceiling like he’s asking for divine intervention. “Why is this happening to me?” One person in the comments said he literally looked like he was saying “huh?” and it really looks like that. It’s that look of unadulterated puppy confusion that makes you want to give him a hug.
Hank doesn’t give up. He finally catches the very tip of it in his mouth. Success! However, the second he tries to stand up with his prize, it slips away. And back to the spinning we go. People in the comments found the clip hilarious. Even a Pyrenees owner chimed in, saying their grown dogs still do this, so maybe Hank will never actually grow out of it.
Anyway, the stairs are still there, undefeated. Hank didn’t get down them, but he definitely found a new hobby. Who needs to learn how to walk when you have a tail that follows you everywhere?
