Who Let the (Robotic) Dog Out?

Welcome to Weirdest Thing of the Week, where…well, we point out weird things.

From hockey stick-whacking to bouncing around in the woods, Boston Dynamics robot videos are pretty amusing.

This week’s broadcast is no different. In it, a dog-like robot named Spot meets a visibly stressed out real dog named Cosmo. The terrier is justifiably unsettled by the appearance of this canine robot, which playfully trots around Cosmo in a parking lot.

Spot belongs to a line of robots from Waltham-based, Google-owned Boston Dynamics. A quadruped, Spot is four-legged machine designed to traipse on rough terrain and sustain attempts to knock it over.

Spot’s living counterpart, Cosmo, is the proud pet of Andy Rubin, the cofounder of Android. You’d think Rubin’s dog would be accustomed to dealing with new technology, but his alarmed barking episode is now immortalized on the internet.

Perhaps Cosmo fears a robot-ruled world. After all, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

And in case you’ve missed previous Boston Dynamics robot action:

Have you noticed funky happenings lately? Tell me about them: mbilis@bostonmagazine.com,@madelinebilis.