Man who 'transformed' himself into a dog makes new friends in public for first time

A Japanese man, who spent £12,500 transforming himself into a dog, has begun to take his first steps outside into public life and has immediately made his own set of four-legged friends as well as some human ones.

The man, known only as Toco, has spent around two million Yen on the hyper-realistic border collie outfit in order to live out his dream of "becoming an animal."

In the most recent video on his YouTube channel, which has more than 31,000 subscribers, Toco can be seen playing in public, rolling around, performing tricks and interacting with other dogs.

As the video progresses, he can be seen being led around by his handler on a makeshift leash (more of a trolley) as other dogs sniff him and people take pictures.

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In the caption for the video, which has been viewed more than 1 million times, Toco reveals that the footage was actually shot for a German TV station in 2022.

Toco writes: "My name is Toco, I wanted to be an animal and I became a collie. This channel will bring you such an unusual video. This video was shot last year when I was interviewed by RTL, a German TV station. Thankfully, I received permission to use the videos, so I am releasing them to the public! On the day of the interview, they were very kind to me. Thank you very much!"

Dogs and people's reactions to seeing a realistic dog costume!www.youtube.com

Many people in the comments to the video were fascinated by the other dogs' reactions to the costume.

One person wrote: "I love how we can witness dogs experiencing the uncanny valley, that is phenomenal. Besides that, if even dogs are unsettled it says a lot."

Another said: "Even the dogs know something ain’t right"

A third added: "The dogs were not fooled lol. That must’ve been freaky for them."

In December 2022, when speaking to the Daily Mirror, Toco admitted that he's now concerned about what his friends will think of him now that he has undergone his transformation.

He said: "I rarely tell my friends because I am afraid they will think I am weird. My friends and family seemed very surprised to learn I became an animal."

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