Woman Thinks Dishwasher Is Broken—Then Captures Real Culprit on Camera – ryan

When her dishwasher started acting up, Hailey Adair assumed it was time to call a repair technician. But after weeks of confusion, she discovered the real culprit behind the kitchen mystery: her dog, Darrel.

In a now-viral video that’s racked up more than 800,000 views since being posted last week, Adair, who lives in Washington, shared the unexpected revelation that her dishwasher issue wasn’t mechanical at all.

In fact, Darrel, a clever rescue dog she adopted several years ago, had been stealthily switching the dishwasher’s magnetic “dirty/clean” sign—leading the family to believe the appliance wasn’t working properly.

“I taught Darrel to do so many silly things just for fun,” Adair told Newsweek. “Many of which I regret teaching him instantly because he loves to prank me back, like pickpocketing, turning off the lights, grabbing things out of the fridge.”

Previously Darrel gained viral attention for another unexpected trick after he learned how to play Connect 4 with his owner. Among his arsenal of tricks? Operating the dishwasher sign.

It’s not surprising Darrel has learned so many commands, with canine researcher Stanley Coren, PhD, of the University of British Columbia, reporting as far back as 2009 that dogs’ mental abilities closely resemble a human child age 2 to 2.5 years, learning an average of 165 words, with “super dogs” recognizing up to 250.

“There are three types of dog intelligence: instinctive (what the dog is bred to do), adaptive (how well the dog learns from its environment to solve problems) and working and obedience (the equivalent of ‘school learning’),” Cohen is quoted in the American Psychological Association saying.

Explaining how she taught him to help out with the dishwasher, Adair said: “One of the things we learned was to slide the dishwasher sign from dirty to clean,” she said. “I would tell him ‘dirty’ or ‘clean’ when I finished dishes, and he would slide it back and forth for me always on cue.”

But in recent weeks, the sign never seemed to match the state of the dishes inside. “We were wondering if the dishwasher wasn’t cycling through or what the heck was going on,” she said.

The mystery was solved when Adair caught Darrel in the act. “He was messing around with the sign while I was doing dishes and then looking at me like, ‘Where’s my treat?’” she laughed. “Our dishwasher is totally fine—we just need a new magnetic sign that’s Darrel-proof.”

In the comments, people couldn’t get enough of Darrel’s pranking antics.

“He thinks it’s one of his puzzles,” laughed viewer Tallie. While Nao said: “Omg what are the odds. I’m glad the dishwasher isn’t broken but also that is pretty funny.”

“He said look I did the dishes,” joked John on TikTok.

Others said it was time to level up Darrel’s tricks, Roberto wrote: “Teach him him how to load and unload the dishwasher now.”

For now, Darrel continues to charm the internet with his mischievous intelligence—and Adair, though occasionally pranked, wouldn’t have it any other way.

Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend, and they could appear in our “Pet of the Week” lineup.