A woman who waited years for proof of what her dog does when church bells sound has finally caught him on video.
Lilly Dodds, 22, lives in England, and her family dog, a black Labrador named Finley, has an unusual quirk: He sings along to the sound of church bells.
“We have church bells every Sunday, and we always rush to see where Finley is,” she told Newsweek, adding that they have to do it “without him noticing,” as he gets shy if anyone watches.
Dodds recently recorded 4-year-old Finley humming along to the bells in a video she posted on TikTok, under the account @lillyannad, on September 11. It has racked up more than 40,000 views in less than a day.
“Been trying to get it on camera for years,” Dodds captioned the video, which shows the black Lab sitting in the backyard, listening to the bells. When he notices Dodds, Finley turns around. She then moves away, pretending she isn’t recording him, as she knows it will put him off.
As Finley prances toward her, he makes a sound that can only be described as singing along, and Dodds cheers, “I got it, woo!”
Screenshots from a TikTok video showing Finley the black Labrador, who has an unusual quirk. He hums along to the church bells that sound near his home every Sunday.
TikTok @lillyannad
“He’ll do this little ‘awoooooo’ with the bells,” Dodds told Newsweek. “He never makes that sound unless it’s with the church bells, and we love it. It’s so sweet.”
TikTok users also fell in love with Finley’s performance, with one praising the “perfect pitch on that awooooo.”
One shocked user wrote, “Did that dog just hum?” while another was in awe at how “beautiful” Finley is.
One Labrador owner wrote: “Why do they stop doing what they’re doing when they see us filming? It’s like they know that we’re recording them.”
Dodds agreed, telling Newsweek: “I’ve told all my friends about it, and they’ve said to get it on video. But this is the first time we managed to.”
Dodds, 22, has recently moved to a different city, but she gets her mom to share daily photos of Finley. They took the 4-year-old Lab into their family after the death of their beloved Lab Murphy.
TikTok @lillyannad
There are many reasons a dog may howl, including responding to a trigger sound, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
This can often come in the form of high-pitched noises, such as emergency vehicle sirens or musical instruments—or, in Finley’s case, church bells.
The pup, who joined Dodds’ family in 2021 after the death of their black Lab Murphy, has plenty of other quirks, his owner said. “He loves swimming, sitting with you on the sofa and looking up at you upside down so he looks like a little bat,” she said.
While Dodds has moved to Newcastle for her “dream job” in public relations and marketing, she gets her mother to send “daily dog pictures as I miss him so much.”
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