A dog from Los Angeles has been filmed sitting at a cafe alone while his owner briefly left the table, and his behavior throughout the clip has delighted internet users.
The viral video, shared on TikTok Tuesday by @kimberly_joy_, shows the fluffy white dog, likely a Samoyed, sitting on a chair like a good pup, quietly looking around and waiting for his owner to come back.
“At the coffee shop and this man just left his dog like this to go to the bathroom. No leash. Sitting like a human. Making eye contact. Completely raw-dogging being unsupervised,” read the caption.
Most dogs tend to be well-behaved when their owners are around, but not all of them keep the good behavior up when left unsupervised. If that sounds like your pup, don’t worry! There are veterinarian-approved ways to fix this issue.
An article by certified dog trainer and canine behavior consultant Cathy Madson for Preventive Vet says that the key to getting your pups to behave when you are not around is by practicing “systematic desensitization,” a type of training aimed at teaching your pup that being alone is not that bad after all.
Madson suggests starting by doing all the little things you do before leaving the house, like putting on shoes, grabbing your keys and wearing your coat, and then without opening the door at all, putting everything right back as it was.
Gradually you can start opening the door and then immediately come back inside, spending a little more time outside each time you practice. This will teach your dog that you leaving is not a big deal.
Handing them high-value treats or toys when you leave and then taking them away when you’re back can also help create a positive association with being temporarily left alone.
British animal charity Dogs Trust says that dogs should never be left alone for more than four consecutive hours, and whenever you need to be gone for longer than that, you should arrange for someone to come take care of them.
A stock image shows a samoyed dog sitting at a table. A dog from LA was filmed sitting alone at a cafe while his owner left the table and his behavior has delighted users on social media.
Getty Images
This training can sometimes be stressful for dogs, and if that’s the case you may want to change approach and take things more slowly.
Signs that they’re not enjoying the new training include panting, pacing, yawning (unrelated to tiredness), lip-licking, vocalizing, urinating, and just general destructive behavior.
The video quickly went viral on social media and it has so far received over 1.8 million views and 295,500 likes on the platform.
One user, Vintage_romance_trip said: “Unsupervised? Looks like he was the one supervising.”
Jenna wrote: “My dog would come find me in the bathroom like ‘girl you just left me out there!”
Stacey added: “Hell, he’s better behaved than me when left unsupervised.”
Newsweek reached out to kimberly_joy_ for comment via email and TikTok comments. We could not verify the details of the case.
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