Who’s a good boy? ….. Huh?!

Loyalty, companionship, the ability to retrieve a stick – these are just some of the fine and admirable qualities that dogs possess.

Intelligence, however, isn’t always that high up on the canine résumé; take everyone’s favourite animal investigator Scooby Doo out of the equation and you would have to admit that problem solving isn’t something that comes naturally to man’s best friend.

Well, a video has gone viral showing the Finnish magician Jose Ahonen giving himself a little ego boost by outwitting a series of hopeless pets. And their simple yet endearing reactions certainly make for great watching.

While these pooches might not be the sharpest tools in the shed, there is one dog out there that you can’t pull a fast one on. In the name of balance it seemed only fair to show this dog in Asia who dutifully stands on guard by his owner’s bike, only to then jump on board for a lift home when master returns.

Chubby hamster become Internet star after its determined under-the-door escape

There are few things quite so undignified as the women on the street who has attempted to defy the laws of physics by squeezing into some jeans that are quite clearly too small for her. We’ve all seen her; we’ve all judged her.

Well, in this video that’s taking YouTube by storm, a hamster shows the same wanton disregard for what onlookers might think as it attempts the impossible by trying to fit through a gap under a door that, at first glance, seems far too small for his chubby frame. What’s extraordinary is that the furry escapee manages it.

Sure to be dubbed the Houdini of hamsters, the video shows this latest animal star of the Internet diligently plotting his escape, sniffing out the widest point of exit before valiantly – if not particularly elegantly – spending a minute shoving its wide rodent behind under the door.

Top marks for effort and credit where it’s due, this hamSTAR defied all the odds to prove everyone wrong. He is now sure to be enjoying the sweet scent of free air.

The runaway animal’s whereabouts are currently unknown but he is thought to be relatively harmless.

OMG TORTOISE.

A tortoise in Hampshire is back on the move after it had its front legs replaced with wheels.

Darren Strand’s shell-wearing pet, Septimus, had his front legs gnawed by rats while it was hibernating in the garden over the winter. When he emerged from his slumber in the spring of 2013 his front feet were so badly injured that they had to be amputated.

The incident served to disprove the misconception popularised by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle franchise, which suggested that rats and shelled reptiles are close allies. However, this is a story with a Hollywood ending all the same.

Following the amputation of its front legs, an innovative solution has seen the wheels from a model aeroplane attached to the reptile’s underbelly using putty, allowing it roam freely once again, albeit at a typically leisurely pace. It is the first time that wheels have ever been used to replace front legs, with similar such procedures only mounting wheels onto the rear of the tortoise.

Owner Strand, a property developer from Gosport, described his pet as “sprightly and sociable”. He added that with his new wheels, Septimus is “really fast” on freshly cut grass or paths, although Strand neglected to comment on any potential risks the 23-year-old reptile might face should he encounter a steep downward hill.

In his allegorical tale of how the tortoise beat the hare, Aesop never threw in the unexpected plot twist that the reptilian racer was actually on wheels. Nevertheless, this is a story that certainly still inspires the same hope with its similarly compelling and unlikely victory for the underdog.