Golden Retriever Gives Mom Total Attitude When She Tries to Take Away His Cheetos

Golden Retrievers are so nice. Golden Retrievers are man's best friend. Golden Retrievers are the perfect dog...well not all of them. One Golden in Chicago, Illinois was caught giving his mama some serious 'tude when she tried to get him away from her snack. But some people online worried that it was a sign of some serious behavioral issues.

We don't know how Ben managed to nab his owner's bag of Hot Cheetos, but he wasn't going to give it up for anything.

Video of Ben's meltdown made it to theTODAY show, where anchor Hoda Kotb shared just a snippet of the dog throwing a fit.

"My dog is eating Hot Cheetos out of the bag and he's mad at me," his mama said from behind the camera. "Ben, you cannot eat those. Give me your Hot Cheetos. You cannot eat them."

Every time the women tried to tell her dog that the Cheetos were a no-no, he started to growl. The mom later told the news network that her dog had never been possessive about food before. We get it, Ben. We're like that when we're around Hot Cheetos too.

Commenters had the same reaction the mom did. "I’ve honestly never seen an angry Golden Retriever. Until now," wrote one person. "Reminds me of the time I tried to take a pizza and a bottle of wine from my wife," someone else joked. "Ben’s stomach isn’t going to be very happy later. Never seen an Golden Retriever act possessive before," a third person teased.

What Is Guarding?

While the video is funny, the reason why Ben was protecting the Hot Cheetos is no laughing matter. Many people in the comments section pointed out that the Golden was most likely guarding.

Resource guarding is when a dog is attempting to assert their ownership over something. Typically the object is a toy or even their favorite human. When an animal guards food it's called food aggression.

These behaviors don't have an exact cause, but many experts believe it's caused by anxiety.

Sometimes the problem is the training that's going on at home. If a dog owner has misguidedly tried to assert their own dominance by removing a dog's food bowl or toy just as the animal is about to enjoy it, it can have the opposite effect. Now the dog will believe the human is coming to take its food or toy away, even when they aren't. Thus resulting in aggressive behavior like growling or becoming hyper-fixated on an object or person.

In this case, it seems like food aggression might be behind the Golden's nasty attitude. But it's hopefully nothing that a visit from the dog trainer can't fix.

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