Dogs have long been used as a weak spot in human psychology, with many people unable to resist petting a cute puppy or helping a whimpering stray. This connection with dogs has lasted since the early days of people and has only grown over time with the domestication of these canine companions. As more and more people have noticed this affinity for the four-legged hounds, some have begun to take advantage of it. Hollywood especially has used dogs as an emotional control mechanism for audiences.
It’s difficult to determine when dogs first began appearing in films, however, their appearances can date back to at least the era of silent films. The first dog considered by many to be a true film star was Blair, a Collie who first starred in a film titled Rescued by Rover. The success of this film paved the way for other canine movie stars, as well as popularizing the name Rover for dogs.
There were a few other big-name celebrities, such as another Collie named Jean, leading up to the first World War. After the war, the next big star was a German Shepherd named Rin Tin Tin. This instant star was rescued from a World War I battlefield by the man who would become his owner. Rin Tin Tin appeared in 27 Hollywood productions and led to both the popularization of German Shepherds as family pets as well as greatly contributing to the success of Warner Bros. Studios. His children would go on to carry this lupine legacy to this day, with the most recent incarnation being Rin Tin Tin XII.
Why Do People Connect To Dogs?
Considering this grand popularity of dogs in film, what is it about dogs that makes people connect with them to such a degree? The origins of dog domestication are believed to come from early-mankind hunters being followed by dogs to pick up whatever scraps had been left behind after a hunt. Dogs were slowly brought into homes and raised to help protect families from predators. This longtime connection with dogs bred into humans a natural connection of safety and familiarity.
It’s been reported that staring into a dog’s eyes can produce oxytocin, which is essentially a signal to one's brain to be happy. Part of what else helps is that dogs are often seen as rather one-sided. They will expound endless love and adoration onto their masters and other people without necessarily expecting anything else in return. All of the treats, pets, and love that owners pass onto their dogs is simply a bonus for these devoted friends.
How Do Movies Manipulate This Connection?
With this inherent connection to dogs, comes a way for people to be manipulated. One of the most common ways to do this is by threatening to hurt a dog. This doesn’t mean a director is holding a gun to a dog’s head, threatening to shoot it if viewers don’t enjoy a movie. Instead, these are moments where a director makes a danger known to be severe and real because it either is, or could be, inflicted upon a dog. Examples of this can be seen across the board, most often in disaster movies wherein a dog runs away from the impending disaster.
Audiences have become desensitized as to whether or not random background characters are dying. However, with a dog, audiences are immediately able to form a connection. It doesn’t matter what that dog had done prior to appearing on screen, the simple fact that it is a dog is all it takes for people to form a connection. There have even been many angry forum posts questioning what had happened to certain dogs seen running from disasters, whereas people aren’t quite treated to the same outrage.
Other movies can manipulate this even more, by showing the death of a dog. John Wick is one series that utilized this, by killing off John Wick’s dog at the very beginning of the movie. No matter what else happened in that film, many audiences felt as though John’s return to killing was justified because of this one action by the Russian criminals. Horror films use this knowledge too, as oftentimes a dog killed by mysterious forces is the first sign of something being wrong.
While not every movie uses dogs for nefarious means, it is a rather commonly known trope that dogs are beloved in movies. There’s a reason stories about dogs quickly become bestsellers and then get turned into movies. People enjoy seeing dogs and are often distrustful of people. Showcasing these biases to be true in a movie makes audiences feel justified in their opinions. There are those directors, such as Wes Anderson, who actively fight against these tropes by killing off dogs in nearly every film, however, it will be a long, hard fight against human nature for those directors to succeed in making their point.