[Sunflower49]

My dog's been known to pretend to limp, so I bend down to check her paws thus am distracted from holding her lead , and then try to bolt (she succeeded the first time)... Her predecessor used to do a similar thing , if she had had a genuine limp that had healed, she'd realise the attentions had dwindled and then pretend the limp had come back, often forgetting which paw/leg it was!

Nothing quite as extreme as what you describe, though!Rascal-I'd have been terrified!