I taught my dog 15 ‘Harry Potter’ spells as commands: ‘Dog sitters are going to love this’
Forget Hogwarts — welcome to Dogwarts.
Audriana Li, who runs @dobbyisafreedoodle on Instagram and TikTok, says she has taught her 3-year-old dog to respond to “Harry Potter” spells as commands.
“I knew long before Dobby came along that I would train my future dog with ‘Harry Potter’ spells instead of regular commands,” she captioned a recent viral clip. “I love feeling like I have real-life magical powers every time I ask him to come, stay, or play dead.”
The Toronto resident named her Labradoodle after Dobby, the house elf in the “Harry Potter” series.
In a 51-second clip posted this month, Li reveals the 15 “Harry Potter” spells her pooch comprehends. She used common “Harry Potter” phrases and adapted them to commands that share similar meanings.
Li started teaching her four-legged wizard some magic spells when he was just a few months old.
“Accio (come / recall) was the first spell Dobby learned at 11 weeks old, and [my partner] Liam was actually the one to teach Dobby to Accio!” she continued.
The Post reached out to Li for comment.
“So if Dobby responds to Harry Potter spells, does that make him a wizard? Or does that make me a witch casting spells on my muggle dog?” she joked in her caption.
The “Harry Potter” devotee knew her pooch would be a diehard fan like herself.
He understands that “expelliarmus” means “drop it,” “wingardium leviosa” is for “jump up,” and “go to Azkaban” is the command to get into his crate.
“Azkaban” refers to a prison fortress where wizarding criminals are sent.
“Go to ‘Azkaban’ is my personal favorite — it makes me laugh every night to send him to ‘Azkaban’ and see him happily trot into his crate!” Li confessed.
She explained the process of having Dobby learn the commands, as some spells were tricky.
“‘Protego’ was supposed to be ‘leave it,’ but the words ‘leave it’ come screaming out of my mouth much more naturally when Dobby tries to eat garbage on our walks, so we changed ‘Protego’ to ‘tuck,'” she revealed.
“We tried ‘Petrificus Totalus’ for stay,” Li continued, “But it was too much of a mouthful for a command that’s used frequently, so we opted for ‘Immobulus’ instead (we’re now working on ‘Petrificus Totalus’ for ‘sit pretty’).”
Li admitted the most requested spell Dobby receives from admirers is “Avada Kedavra,” which translates to “play dead.”
The Canadian dog owner has taught her pet a spell book of 15 commands, including:
- Relashio — back up
- Stupefy — lay down
- Confundus — spin
- Glisseo — jump over
- Immobulus — stay
- Duro — head down
- Ascendio — go up the stairs
- Aguamenti — drink water
Dobby’s social media presence and mystical mannerisms have garnered a loyal following of 28,000 TikTok whizzes.
“Imagine shouting ‘Avada Kedavra’ in public with [a] wand that [lights] up,” penned one Potter fan.
“Dog sitters are going to love this,” joked a watcher.
Li replied, “I have a 12 page [Powerpoint] deck for sitters, one of the pages is dedicated to his spells, how to pronounce them, and what each one means!”
“My [dog] is named Neville Longbottom i should teach him a spell,” shared someone else. “Harry Potter fan on a different level.”
“Red fur and a hand me down robe? Must be a Weasley!” laughed another.
