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By Soo Kim
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A video of a dog demonstrating an "unbelievable" level of self-control in front of a plate of chicken has gone viral on TikTok.
The clip was shared by @federicafinocchiaro_ and has had 9.5 million views since it was first posted on May 17.
The footage shows a woman placing a whole rotisserie chicken on a plate at a table with her dog Grayson sitting next to her. The dog is shown looking at the chicken.
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"OK, he looks interested," she says in the clip. "I'm gonna go upstairs for a little bit, so just watch Grayson and let's see what he does, let's see if he tries to eat it."
After the woman leaves, Grayson appears to avoid eye contact with the chicken throughout the entire video before the woman returns to the table and later feeds him a piece.
The canine's apparent sense of self-control in front of food is not entirely surprising, because "dogs do possess some inhibitory control abilities," found a May 2017 study in Frontiers in Psychology, and "aspects of motivation, learning, and experience" come into play in varying degrees depending on the task at hand.
Some dogs have a greedy nature when it comes to food, which could be down to genetics, according to a Cambridge University study in May 2016.
The study, published in Cell Metabolism, showed that some Labradors have a mutation in their DNA that could predispose them to weight gain.
Eleanor Raffan, a co-author of the study, noted "There is some hard-wired biology behind that persistent food-seeking behavior," The Guardian reported at the time of the study's release.
According to the study, among the dog breeds for which data was reported, Labrador retrievers were found to have "the greatest documented obesity prevalence and have been shown to be more food motivated than other breeds..."
'Good Boy'
The dog in the latest viral clip glances at the chicken just before the woman leaves and later appears to avoid looking at it throughout the clip. At one point, the canine swallows his saliva and licks his lips before continuing to stare straight ahead, occasionally looking up toward the adjacent staircase.
The woman later returns and says "wow OK, so he doesn't like chicken I guess. It doesn't smell good?" as the dog is shown staring at the chicken.
"OK, I feel bad, so I'll give you a piece," she says. The woman rips off a piece of meat from the chicken and gives it to the dog, who scarfs it down.
"Good boy," she says while patting him on the head before the clip ends.
'Unbelievable' Self-Control
The latest clip has left TikTokers in stitches, with several impressed by the canine's self-control.
Andrea wrote: "He didn't even LOOK at it. OMG I'm so blown away right now."
"He's trying so hard not to look at it," said flywithDanx.
Salvadordali noted: "That gulp was hilarious. He was sweating bullets lol."
Josiah Bahuaud said: "He's got more control than I do for rotisserie chicken.."
SciFi Stalker agreed, saying "This dog's self control is greater than 95% of all human population."
User @johnhancock_1776_ noted: "That is a very smart dog, he thought ahead of the possible consequences and applied self control avoiding eye contact with the chicken. Unbelievable!"
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via TikTok. This video has not been independently verified.
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