“The Look of Anxiety” — Woman Leaves Dog Alone With Cheeseburger and Treats, Records Reaction

A woman who recorded her dog's reaction to her leaving a plate of food in a room while she briefly steps out is going viral on Reddit's r/TikTokCringe sub.

The pet owner, in a pair of videos, tests the dog's self-control — first with "human" food.

"Umm can you guys just watch my cheeseburger please while I go to the bathroom? Thanks," she says, leaving a picturesque, fat-stacked cheeseburger on a plate in front of her pet, who looks at the food, then looks at the woman longingly as she stands up from her seat and exits the camera frame.

The bandana-rocking pup sees her step away from the food and leave the room. With her gone, the dog stares ahead a bit he licks his lips but doesn't look at her food, staring straight ahead.

His ear twitches a bit, perhaps in an attempt to listen out for his owner to see where she is in the house. After hearing her footsteps coming from another part of the house, he turns around and licks his lips again, anticipating her arrival into the room, still avoiding even looking at the food on the plate.

She walks down the stairs of her home and sits back in her chair, "K, thank you," she says as she sits back in her seat.

Numerous Redditors who saw the post said they felt for the dog and witnessed what they believed was a constant battle they were having within themselves as to whether or not they should start chowing down on the burger right then and there.

"You can practically see how he is thinking this through," one person said.

Another remarked, "The look of anxiety on that dog’s face the moment he realized she was going upstairs and he’d be left alone with that burger…"

Another commenter narrated the internal monologue they thought was going through the dog's head as he attempted to remain strong in the face of such adversity:

"You can do this

Don't look!

Oh...I don't think I can do this

Fawwwwwk that smell

Snap out of it

OK OK OK. Just breathe...

Breathe in...

Breathe out...

...just one little bite

No! Come on, stop thinking about it

1 and 2 and 3 and 4

1 or 2 bites won't be noticeable right.

Aw thank God she's return I was about to crumble."

For another Redditor, this video was proof of how intelligent animals are and how, as another person in the comments said, they "wear their emotions on their sleeves."

"LMFAO I was cracking up the entire time. Refusing to look at it."

"No. I'm a good boy. The goodest boy. Not gonna look!"

"And he looks SO SAD about it at times lol this was amazing. Most dogs are not stupid at all."

The same pet owner from the original video decided to continue to test her dog's mettle with food specifically designed for puppies to enjoy: a big plate of dog treats.

At the start of this next video, it seems that her pet is already struggling while looking at the mound of treats before him.

"OK so I have a plate of dog cookies and biscuits here," she says, picking up one of the treats from off of the plate and feeding it to the good boy, as she continues to say, "because everyone is like 'try this again but with his treats.' So I'm gonna leave his little dog biscuits right here and I'm gonna go run upstairs and let's see if he's gonna eat these."

While she speaks, her dog continues to burn holes with his eyes into the plate before him, staring lasers into the plate. According to the content creator, she doesn't think that the plate of dog cookies and treats really stands a chance: "I think he is going to this time but I'm gonna go upstairs," she says while pointing up to the area she'll be staying in as she records her pet as part of the self-control experiment.

"And let's just see. Let's just see," she remarks before exiting the screen. The dog looks down at the plate and then off into the distance, his eyes wide. He stands at attention and won't even gaze at the plate before him, but you can almost hear the coals burning in his head at this point.

It sounds like he hears something upstairs — the dog begins to look around to see where his owner is. Birds can be heard chirping outside as he continues to simply look straight ahead, beyond the treats just a few inches away from him. He hears his owner walking down the stairs and, again, he licks his lips and directs his head toward her.

The TikToker is surprised to see how much her dog restricted himself while she was gone: "Wow, OK, so they're all here. I'm gonna watch it back to see if he ate any. Hold on," she says, before the video cuts back to her talking into the camera, still shocked at how good of a boy her dog is: "OK I just watched it and he didn't eat any of it which is insane, that was really good," she says, picking up a treat off the plate to hand to her pup, who happily takes it and starts chomping away.

"Good boy, oh my gosh, wow," she says into the camera as the video ends.

After seeing him pass yet another food test, one Redditor was smitten with how stately the pup was behaving: "He’s a distinguished gentleman," they wrote of him.

Have you ever had a pet you trusted to leave alone in a room with not just a cheeseburger, but a plate full of dog treats?