Last month, Subaru ran a commercial on tv entitled Support the ASPCA® When You Get a New Subaru During the Subaru Share the Love® Event. The commercial opens with a young-ish girl who looks to be in her early twenties sweeping a dimly lit hallway. One can make out that there are kennels on either side of the floor she is sweeping, each with wire mesh reaching up out of frame to the ceiling. In the foreground is a fluffy white dog in his kennel off to one side attentively watching the girl. We hear a mix of barking noises, and it is clear we’re at the animal shelter. The fluorescent lighting overhead is off, but it is on in a distant hallway and in the kennels, leaving us with the impression that it is early morning and the shelter is closed.
The girl bends down in front of one kennel we have not seen into yet. She says in a loving, reassuring voice, “Hi Bella. Maybe today is your day.”
The camera changes angles, and we see Bella inside her cage. She’s a big girl, maybe 90 lbs., lying sortof half on and half off a blue blanket on the floor. We are down at that level on the floor with her. She has a beige coat with black fur around her face, snout, and on her ears. Her eyes are staring forward and the second you see them they pierce your heart. Her eyebrows are slightly raised, and she makes a sorrowful, resigned, weary moan without moving, wagging her tail, or getting up to show interest in the girl sweeping, unlike the dog in the next kennel over who is up on all fours and filled with hope that activity, any activity, even a girl sweeping, means he’s getting out of there today. It’s clear that Bella does not share his optimism. Focused on Bella’s face, we hear a voice-over in the young girl’s voice, “It hurts to see them passed over.”
I cannot watch that commercial without tearing up. I’m even emotional now as a type this. Yes, because it makes me sad that Bella is all alone on a cold floor in a cage just waiting for the warmth of love. But mainly because with every ounce of my being I want to rescue Bella. I’m not crazy! Researchers in the UK found that the dogs who had a doleful expression on their face were rehomed faster from shelters, and that so-called “puppy dog eyes” were more likely to result in a dog getting adopted than tail wagging or the speed at which dogs bounded over to the humans that were visiting them.
Over the course of 33,000 years as they became domesticated from the gray wolf or “Canis lupus,” some dogs developed the ability to raise their eyebrows, making puppy dog eyes – and scientists say this causes a protective, nurturing impulse in the humans around them to activate which increased the chances for survival of those breeds who made this evolutionary adaptation. They have us wrapped around their paw!
Scientists have found that dogs increase oxytocin levels in humans. Oxytocin, which is produced in the hypothalamus and released into the bloodstream by the pituitary gland, is a hormone involved in social bonding, love, and long-term emotional attachment, and has been shown to reduce levels of cortisol, a hormone produced by the adrenal glands that signals to the body it faces a dangerous, “fight or flight” situation; high levels of cortisol in the body indicate stress. Increased oxytocin resulting in decreased cortisol gives us a relaxed feeling of well-being and safety. Is it any wonder that dogs make such good companions and/or service animals? Have you ever heard of a “seeing eye cat?”
Research conducted at Washington State University in 2019, in which cortisol levels were tested in students preparing for exams by taking saliva samples, showed lower levels of cortisol (and therefore stress) in those students who had interacted with dogs than in a control group made up of students who had not. Patricia Pendry, an associate professor in WSU’s Department of Human Development, and WSU graduate student Jaymie Vandagriff, published their findings in AERA Open.
This post is dedicated to Gordon, Sophie, Rocket, Mikey, Maggie, Obie, Rodeo, Dylan, Belle, Chloe, Mr. Barkington, Winston, Beau, and all the other pups who brighten our days.
And it is dedicated in loving memory to Dennis, Mandy, Wil, Taffy, Yoshi, Maddie, Sandy, Red, and all the pups no longer with us. It is one of life’s cruelties that we outlive them.