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., laying 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 crying. I am crying 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! There is science behind this: Professor Bridget Waller, the director of the Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Portsmouth 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.
In the journal Current Biology, researchers describe how eye contact between humans and dogs encourages us to care for them and how the gaze of a dog can cause a release of oxytocin in the human looking at him or her. Additionally, 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.
I “communicate” with my dog, Gordon, all day every day. Some of it is verbal, like when it’s time for him to eat – I say “do you want doggie breakfast?” And he goes insane. Or when I’m ready to go to bed – I say “time to go mimis.” And he runs over to the side of the bed I sleep on, waiting for me to lumber over there on my walker, sit down on the edge of the bed, then hold his back while he climbs up my leg to join me. I know it’s the Pavlovian repetition he understands. I always say the words “doggie breakfast” before I feed him. And “let’s go mimis” is something my ex used to say to me when it was bedtime – I think it’s a Guatemalan thing, his mother used to say it to him when he was a niño (a “boy”). I’ve just continued the tradition with Gordon; I say it every night. He’s conditioned enough to know those sequences of sounds coming out of my mouth precede a certain activity, one he likes, like eating, or cuddling up next to me under the covers to sleep. We know dogs can be trained to associate words like sit, stay, go potty, fetch, roll over, go for a walk, and shake with certain actions and behaviors. This is nothing new.
What is new is what the aforementioned research found with regard to dogs increasing oxytocin in humans. Oxytocin, 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? 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. The method of “interaction” was hands-on, meaning they could pet, play with, and generally hang out with the dogs. What is exciting to me is that the Japanese research concludes that a look is enough!
So, reduce stress now! Ask me how.
Let me share with you my two tried-and-true methods for stress reduction. One is to hug, play with, or otherwise just stare at my dog Gordon. I am amazed at how much I love and rely on him.
But Gordon isn’t always with me when I go out, like, say, to a doctor’s appointment – which in my case can often be quite stressful. And I don’t carry him around with me in a man purse even though he’s tiny enough and would be up for it – an older overweight gay man carrying a murse with a Chihuahua in it? Talk about a stereotypical gay cliché… I’m not that far gone, yet! So I’ve bookmarked a link to Norbert’s website that I can access on my phone that I do carry with me. Norbert is a 3 lb. Chihuahua, Cairn Terrier, and Lhasa Apso mix, and is a certified therapy dog; read more about him by clicking here. To demonstrate the power of how just looking at a dog can reduce stress, anxiety, and make us feel better, I encourage you to take the Norbert Challenge below. Just watching him will release oxytocin into your body. And this will make you feel better; you will know because you will smile. Guaranteed!
THE NORBERT CHALLENGE
Can you go 90 seconds watching this video without smiling? My best time is 22 seconds.
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.