Over the weekend, an amazing video of a Golden Retriever happily driving a motorcycle down a street in Manado, North Sulawesi, spread like wildfire through social media while raising many questions. Like, who is this incredible dog? How on Earth did it learn to drive? And how did it become so much freakin’ cooler than we could ever hope to be?
Well, now we have some answers. Kompas tracked down the dog’s human, a 32-year-old man named Revol Gerungan, in Manado.
(If you were worried about Sidney’s safety, you can see here that he wears a helmet at least some of the time)
It turns out that his amazing 2.5 year old Golden Retriever is named Sidney. And what you see in the above video is not some kind of trick – Sidney really can drive a motorcycle.
“When he was three months old, he liked to sit on the dashboard while I drove my motorcycle,” Revol told Kompas.
Once he started getting bigger, Sidney started to like riding on the backseat. But Revol became worried about Sidney’s safety.
“I was afraid that he would fall, so I moved him to the front. Over time, he showed a talent for holding the steering handlebar,” he said.
For nearly a year, Sidney continued to sit in the front and Revol says he eventually learned how to keep the motorcycle steady by holding onto the handlebar all by himself.
According to Revol, Sidney loves to drive down the street on his scooter. Every Saturday morning, Revol shows off Sidney’s driving skills on a quiet road while hanging out with other dog lovers in Manado.
Besides his skills on a motorcycle, Sidney is apparently also quite the swimmer. Revol says that as soon as the fuzzy Golden Retriever sees a swimming pool or the sea, he loves to jump in and get his fur wet.
“He is also quite a good swimmer, he can swim a distance of more than 100 meters,” Revol said.
Considering Sidney appears to be a better motorist than many Jakartans, we hope he continues to be able to pursue his doggy driving dreams for a long time.
