How large of a piece of chicken do you envision this girl stuffing her mouth, that the dog not only could see it to know it was in there, but to also know how to dislodge it, whether to prevent choking as claimed by the girl, or to pop a snack out of her throat as you claim?
Your anthropomorphization of the dog is much more extreme than merely attributing a desire to help the girl.
Dogs are very empathetic toward their people. That has been demonstrated again and again for centuries. There are breeds specifically bred for the rescue of human beings, in water, in snow, under debris.
-- Your anthropomorphization of the dog is much more extreme than merely attributing a desire to help the girl. --
Now that's a good three dollar word, anthropomorphization. Are you sure my remark was somehow attributing human qualities to the dog? I meant it to be the opposite of that.
-- Dogs are very empathetic toward their people. --
Yes. I know. I have a dog in my pack - or he has me in his. And he does look out.
I honestly don't have a clue why the dog slapped the girl on the back. Maybe he thought she was playing, maybe he knew she was in distress (but I doubt he was trained to know how to dislodge food from a choking person's throat).
Attributing the dog's reaction as being solely food driven wasn't a serious conjecture on my part, except the part about dogs being food driven generally.