The parallel comes from the argument from rape apologists that say stuff like “men can’t control themselves, it’s like putting a juicy stake in front of a dog”. It’s a disgusting argument shifting blame to the way women dress, saying they provoked them. The message here comes straight from that, debunking the whole “dogs can’t control themselves so men can’t either” argument.

As for whether the dog would eat that while the trainer isn’t there, I don’t know about that. I trained my dog not to eat without a signal, and I have been testing her to see how well she responds to that by literally leaving the room for a while and seeing what she does. I always come back to the untouched food and her lying patiently in front of it. And it’s not just me, there are a ton of videos of people doing the same and leaving their dogs alone with the food, some of these videos even part of an earlier iteration of this same trend.

Also, I don’t think it matters that the dog didn’t train itself. In fact, I think it says exactly what it should, that we should stop hiding behind the “boys will be boys” argument and teach our boys and men how to behave.