I Want You to Love Me Like a Dog
As published in the Mountain Mail on December 7, 2018...A while back I put together a collection of action shot therapy dog photos I’d accumulated. I put them in a file on my computer as a slideshow. Then I searched through iTunes to find the perfect song to sync with the slideshow. I felt like I’d won a lottery when I came across the song called Like a Dog, by Billy Currington.
The words to Like a Dog are:
He never tells me that he’s sick of this house.
He never says why don’t you get off that couch
He don’t cost me nothin’ when he wants to go out
I want you to love me like my dog
He never says I need a new attitude
Him and my sister ain’t always in a feud
When I leave the seat up he don’t think that it’s rude
I want you to love me like my dog does, baby!
When I come home, I want you to just go crazy
He never looks at me like he might hate me
I want you to love me like my dog
He never acts like he don’t care for my friends
He never asks me where in the hell have you been?
He don’t play dead when I wanna pet him
I want you to love me like my dog does, honey!
He never says ‘I wish you made more money’
He always thinks that pullin’ my finger’s funny
I want you to love me like my dog
He don’t get mad at me and throw a major fit
When I say his sister is a bitch
I want you to love me like my dog does baby
When I come home, I want you to just go crazy
He never looks at me like he might hate me
I want you to love me like my dog!
As all of you reading this article probably realize, the bond between dogs and humans is truly a special thing. Research has shown that interactions with dogs usually increase our levels of oxytocin, a chemical associated with the feeling of happiness.
I’m currently reading a book called Behave, the biology of humans at our best and worst. The book introduced me to the concept of an “emotional contagion,” which is the phenomenon of having one persons emotions (and related behaviors) directly trigger similar emotions (and behaviors) in other people.
It warms my heart each time I watch the slideshow synced to the music. Why? What is it about watching these photos of dogs and humans interacting that is so touching?
My theory is that the slideshow demonstrates the powerful, oxytocin increasing, benefit of therapy dog teams doing their volunteering at the hospital, schools, reading programs, restorative justice circles, nursing homes, Starpoint, etc. By viewing the slideshow and observing the human-dog interactions, this creates an emotion contagion!
Laura Pintane is a local dog trainer that gets the opportunity of this emotion contagion during her classes as she coaches her human and dog students to bond through dog training
