A baffling experiment into whether a dog really is a man’s best friend has shown that when push comes to shove a pet pooch is really on the side of a woman.

A couple from Shanghai, China, filmed themselves pretending to assault each other in a bid to decide which one of them their pet loves best.

The video – filmed on 17th October – first shows the owner Mr Jin pretending to punch his wife on the back.

As he pounds away, the family pooch jumps up onto the bed and tried to hold down his fist with his front paws.

And when that doesn’t work, the dog bares it teeth, puts its ears back and lets out a warning bark ordering the ‘beating’ to stop.

But when the roles are reversed with the wife beating the man, the video shows that the pup does absolutely nothing and just stands on the bed looking on.

The dog’s reaction was so marked that the couple upload the video onto Douyin – the Chinese version of TikTok.

He admitted feeling very sad about the result of the experiment because he is usually the one who takes care of the dog every day.