Former rugby player Brian O'Driscoll has shared his embarrassment after taking the wrong dog home from the pet groomers. Explaining the mix up, the Irish legend told of how he didn't notice he collected the wrong pooch until he'd parked up at home.
He'd booked his dog in for a routine hair cut - and just thought the groomer "sheared off" the black patches on her face in the process. But not only did she look different, she was also shying away from Brian - not wanting to be stroked like she usually would.
Sign to our TeamDogs newsletter for your weekly dose of dog news, pictures and stories.
In a post on Instagram, he said: "When you take the wrong dog all the way home from the groomers.
"I just thought all the black had been sheared off her face and she was a bit quiet with me coz she hates getting her hair cut."
But Brian isn't the only person who has taken home a stranger's pet as a w oman was left outraged after her groomer returned the wrong dog to her.
The owner took her dog, a German Shepherd cross Newfoundland, to the groomers for a trim ahead of the summer months and collected her as normal afterwards.
But before even walking out the door, the woman started to question her dog's behaviour, saying she was acting differently to her normal happy self.
However, she put it down to the dog, Emma, being in a stressful environment and thought she would return to 'normal' after relaxing at home.
Speaking to Reddit, the woman said: "When we got her back from her hair cut she began to act very strange. Physically, she was identical but mentally she was not there.
After four months of caring for the dog, the woman's mum received an unexpected phone call from the groomer, who explained how there had been an awful mix up.
She said: "For four months, I've been taking care of and loving this dog I was calling Emma who looked exactly like my dog but was somehow different from the Emma I once knew.
"My mother made an off-hand comment about how Emma had been acting almost traumatized-like since we got her back.
"My mother got a call from the groomer. The call consisted of her asking my mother to bring Emma to a meeting at her shop immediately because another dog owner asked her the same question [about their dog's recent unusual behaviour] just the other day.
"The dog that I had been caring for was named Bear, and belonged to a pair of near elderly psychopaths. Their dog is my dogs almost identical twin sister from the same litter."
Although she now has her dog back, the woman has been struggling to come to terms with what happened - and has questioned how the mix up will impact the dogs in the long term.
Do you have a dog story to share? Email paige.freshwater@reachplc.com.
