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This woman has trained her dog to do tricks in response to Harry Potter spells

When Anna Brisbin says Avada Kedavra, her puppy Remus plays dead.
When Anna Brisbin says Avada Kedavra, her puppy Remus plays dead. When Anna Brisbin says Avada Kedavra, her puppy Remus plays dead.

A Harry Potter fan has taken her love of the books to the next level by teaching her dog to respond only to spells from the series.

Anna Brisbin – an actor, YouTuber and Potter superfan – has taught her puppy Remus to do many of the same tricks as other dogs – like fetching a ball, standing on two legs and playing dead.

But unlike most pups, the long haired miniature dachshund will launch into his tricks in response to Potterverse spells like Accio, Wingardium Leviosa and Avada Kedavra – accompanied, of course, by a few flicks of a magic wand.

“I’ve been training him since May when he was two months old,” Anna told the Press Association. “But that was mostly just Stupefy and Wingardium Leviosa.

“And we’ve been working on Avada Kedavra for a long time also, but he still will only do it on a nice soft carpet.”

Anna has cleverly matched the Potter spells to common doggy tricks, so for example Avada Kedavra – the killing curse – induces Remus to play dead, and he will fetch upon hearing the summoning charm Accio.

But some of the tricks are particularly ingenious – Aguamenti, used to summon water in JK Rowling’s wizarding universe, encourages Remus to pee and, perhaps best of all, the snake-summoning Serpensortia spell induces him to stick out his tongue.

“He has nine solid ones, and a few more we can get to work on occasion,” Anna said. “I wish I could teach him to bark on command (Sonorus) or better, howl (Crucio).

“Then I could also say Quietus for him to stop. Ugh, it’d be great.”

Remus himself is of course named, appropriately enough, after Hogwarts’ best-known werewolf, Remus Lupin.

And Anna is just delighted that the world is finally getting to see what he can do.

She said: “I’ve been training him for so long and he’s been such a good boy about it! I’m just so pleased the world is seeing how adorable and sweet and good he is.”

Keep an eye on Anna’s YouTube channel Brizzy Voices for more fine Potter-themed content.