Cinematically pretty inert. Another Edison in which one character tries to make another character look stupid. The fact that the plan backfires, and it’s the first guy ends up looking foolish, may not make the film that much more tasteful.
These early films so often have unexpected, unheralded components. We’ll probably never know the why of them, but we can sure enjoy the fact of them. In this case: where’d that dog come from?