Tears as Golden Retriever Tries To Find Owner After Being Lost for 1 Minute

A video showing a golden retriever's heartbroken reaction to momentarily losing sight of her owner has got people reaching for the tissues.

In a clip posted to TikTok, Chanel, a four-year-old dog living in Manhattan, can be seen looking back and forth across a busy park in search of her owner.

Unbeknownst to the canine, her human friend is sitting nearby filming the golden retriever's increasingly crestfallen reaction. For a few seconds, she appears lost and confused as to where her human may have got to.

Thankfully, her lost expression is soon replaced by one of joy as Chanel finally spots her owner and happily bounds over. The entire saga may have only spanned 25 seconds, but it generated huge reaction after the clip was uploaded to TikTok under the handle chanelgoldenretrieverr with multiple crying face emojis posted in response.

You can watch the video here.

"Golden retrievers are so loyal," the accompanying caption reads. At the time of writing the video has been watched over 10 million times with many seeing it as proof of just how much our dogs miss and need us.

That bond was best highlighted in a 2013 study published in the scientific journal PLoS One which highlighted how the relationship between dog and owner is more similar to that of parent and child.

Researchers conducted a series of experiments demonstrating how the relationship between pet owner and dog carries the same "secure base effect" present between young children and their parents. Essentially, having them nearby provides a secure base to interact with the rest of the environment around them.

To prove the theory, a group of dogs were examined attempting to complete a task under three conditions: when their owner was absent, when they were silent and when they were encouraging.

The dogs were tasked with manipulating dog toys. If successful, they would earn a food reward. Researchers found that the dogs were less keen on working for food when their human companion was absent. When they encouraged them or remained silent had little influence on motivation.

However, if their owner was replaced by a stranger, they not only barely interacted with them but barely tried to get the food. Researchers therefore concluded that having an owner nearby was crucial to a canine's overall confidence.

Chanel certainly appeared lost and aimless without her owner before returning to her confident self once she spotted where she was.

Though they were happily reunited, the drama of it all was too much for some viewers and fellow dog owners to take. "My shih tzu would literally start shaking from anxiety," one wrote with another commenting: "Don't ever do this again -overly concerned golden dad." A third added: "As a golden momma my heart breaks just watching this video. Can't imagine my baby thinking he's abandoned for just a second."

A fourth joked: "My golden would have ran up to the next person he saw and found a new family" but for many the clip was no laughing matter. Instead, it offered a brief glimpse of the kind of panic that must greet any dog abandoned for real.

"Can't help but think of the dogs that don't find their owners," one TikToker commented, while another said they were "imagining all the dogs who get left for real, looking around like that."

Newsweek has contacted chanelgoldenretrieverr.

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