Need a Laugh? These Funny Dog Videos Were the Best Part of 2020

Whew, 2020 has been a year. Is it just us, or has it lasted at least 27 months? The good news is that soon, we’ll be ringing in a new year with new possibilities. Until then, we can look back and remember all the times pets saved our day with their quirky, laugh-til-you-cry antics. Can these 12 best funny dog videos erase all the stress of the past year? Maybe not. But at least they can remind us that there’s always something to look forward to, especially when pups are in the picture.

Bobby is a 1-year-old Boxer who was rescued from a trash bin when he was a wee pup. Now that he's healthy, happy and has a human who loves him, he can live life to the fullest—which, for Bobby, means digging giant holes in the sand. Not only does this pup have serious earth-moving skills, his floppy cheeks and flappy ears are the reason why phone cameras have a slow-mo setting, earning this clip a spot among the best dog videos of the year.

Some dogs love splashing around in the ocean, jumping in the waves, getting soaked and adoring every second. Golden Retriever Hudson B. Mason is not one of those dogs. So no, this isn’t just a funny dog video. It’s the inspirational tale of one very courageous boy rescuing a favorite toy from the clutches of the scary, splashy water during a day at the beach. To paraphrase Neil Gaiman, being brave doesn’t mean you aren’t scared. Being brave means you are scared, and you go get that ball anyway.

If you discover that someone is sitting right outside your shower door, waiting for you to turn the water off so they can hand you a towel, you've probably either been cast in a romantic comedy or you're staying in a really weird hotel. German Shepherd Anya is here with a third option: that you live with a sweet, devoted pup who just wants you to be warm, cozy and accommodated. We're not saying we'd teach her how to make a cup of tea, but we're not not saying that either. (Two sugars please, Anya).

Scientists speculate that foxes can somehow use the Earth's magnetic field to help them jump onto prey. But when black Lab Jax decided to take his own plunge into the snow, he seemed less guided by the Earth's poles and more just a victim of gravity. But don’t worry, Jax! You’re still the star of one of the year’s best dog videos, making you one cool pup— literally and figuratively.

Lawn sprinklers don't seem like a big deal, unless you're an 8-year-old on a hot day, a runner who just wants to get home without a pair of wet socks, or these two Golden Retrievers, who don't know what's going on, where the water's coming from, or why it's in their yard. In this funny dog video, they investigate the mystery of the splashy grass. Excellent detective work, guys!

During this year of social isolation and occasional loneliness, were you ever tempted to order a bunch of random stuff online, just so somebody would ring your doorbell and remind you that other people still existed out there? No? Just us? You might've at least considered it if your packages were delivered by Herky and Milton, a pair of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels who are ready to start work immediately. We're not sure which one of them drives the truck––or even how they drive the truck––but they look sharp enough to figure it out.

Looking for the best video of a dog descending a staircase? Look no further. The next time we race downstairs, we'll 100 percent be thinking about this Basset Hound, who straight up bounces from one carpeted step to the next. Not every dog can pull off this maneuver—you really need a pair of floppy ears for balance and potential liftoff (we assume).

Everyone thinks that they look like some kind of adorable Disney character when they're asleep—that their eyelashes are long and perfect, that their hair remains unmussed, and that they're not doing anything gross or having that weird dream about the Ferris wheel again. The sad fact is that we can't all be like Maisie, who looks like such a sweet girl, even when she's snoring and dreaming about whatever the dog equivalent of that Ferris wheel is.

A lot of dogs chase their tails, but none of them seem to consider what they'll do if they actually catch it. Case in point: Moose the Golden Retriever, who has actually grabbed his own tail and seems determined to do, uh, something with it. (That something seems to be getting tangled in his front leg and his tail, before gently falling over.)

You know those M.C. Escher lithographs showing hands drawing each other, staircases to nowhere, and other impossible scenarios that made your head spin if you stared at them too long? Niner the Golden Retriever seems to be doing his best impression of one of them. In this video, he's wedged himself into a corner, with his back paws on one wall, his front paws on the other, and his furry little bod is somehow facing up and down at the same time. He also looks very much like he'd appreciate if you left him alone to lay down ... er ... up in peace.

Dogs have around 300 million sensory receptors in their nose, which is about 50 times as many as we humans have in our own sniffers. As a result, dogs not only have a far keener sense of smell, but they also might be able to detect temperature changes using nothing but their noses. In Oliver Lee's case, his nose also seems to control his back leg: With every soft boop on the snout, his left foot twitches. We've never seen this happen before––in dogs or in humans––but the next time somebody falls asleep beside us on an airplane, we're going to test it out.

Have you ever been in a work meeting that was so boring, you honestly considered chewing your way out of the conference room? If you answered yes, either your day job is considerably less enjoyable than ours, or you're an Aussie mix named Nilla. In this clip, Nilla has clearly realized that this meeting could have been an email, and she's determined to get out of that room any way she can. Look, we're just going to "talk big picture" for another 10 minutes or so, and then everybody's free to go. Synergy.