‘We’ve never seen this many doodles at our shelter before’

The video opens with an attention-grabbing caption: “We’ve never seen this many doodles at our shelter before.”

Then a photo of Suzie Q pops up with the label “Golden Doodle” though she is clearly a pit bull mix in a curly blonde wig.

What follow is a series of nondoodle dogs in costume, one with a wig hilariously falling off: A dog named LaGuardia is called a “Schnoodle,” Mamas is identified as a “Labradoodle,” and Green is a “Cockadoodle.”

The video gently pokes fun at America’s love affair with “doodles” while also advertising that the shelter is trying to find homes for their larger dogs and pit bull mixes.

It was made by Lois Huang for the Animal Care Centers of New York City. She said this is not the first shelter to make this joke, but it seems to have worked: The video, posted Sept. 4, got tens of thousands of views, comments and shares – and led to nine dogs being adopted in one day, according to the shelter.

“We really just wanted to use humor to get people to come into the shelter to find the perfect dog,” Huang said.

And what better way than invoking the beloved doodle?

“Designer breeds are just so popular right now,” Huang said. “I think people, when they think about what kind of dog they want, they don’t think to go to the shelter first.”

There are a lot of negative perceptions about pit bull mixes that Huang sees on the shelter’s social media accounts.

“We see really mean comments about bully breeds,” Huang said. She added that many of the dogs are surrendered by families who have to move or are no longer allowed to have pets by their landlords, meaning the dogs are more likely to be well-trained.

One dog featured in Huang’s video was Miss Buttercup, a pit bull mix who was found on the streets of New York by a group of kids in May. They brought her to a New York Police Department precinct, and she ended up at the shelter.

Barbara Ho and Japheth Baker were finally ready to adopt after their senior dog died about a year ago. They started looking at the shelter’s website and were immediately charmed by the photos of Miss Buttercup in her wig.

“I wouldn’t want to say that I wanted to adopt a dog because she wore a wig,” Baker said, laughing. But “seeing a dog being vulnerable, being silly, I think is what we look for when we’re having that fantasy looking at all the pictures.”

Ho and Baker met a number of dogs when they went to the shelter in Manhattan for an adoption event on Sept. 7. Part of what drew them to Miss Buttercup was that she had been at the shelter for months.

They adopted her – and shortened her name to Butter. She has made herself at home, cuddling with them on their couch and lounging on their bed.

“I think we’ve been surprised in every respect about what a good and well-adjusted dog she’s turned out to be,” Baker said.

Ho knows there are negative perceptions about pit bull mixes, but she said she has had positive experiences with them.

“They just want to be loved by you and be around you,” she said. And “take over your bed and your couch.”

The couple has had pit bull mixes before, and they thought the campaign advertising “doodles” at the shelter was a riot.

“That is the picture that I screenshotted and sent to my family out of town,” Baker said of Butter in a wig.

The same day that Butter was adopted, Green, the “Cockadoodle” who couldn’t keep a wig on, found a foster home.

“We definitely saw an increase in shelter traffic after the video came out,” Katy Hansen with ACC said. “I think people could see how joyful and fun the average large breed dog could be. Plus, with the video getting millions of views from friends sharing it with each other we probably reached thousands of new potential adopters who might not have considered coming to a city shelter to adopt.”

Huang said she hopes this mini-viral moment helps New Yorkers realize there are many dogs at the shelter who need adoption. Some need vigorous daily exercise, while others mostly prefer creature comforts. Her experience is with the latter.

“They’re actually really great for apartment life, because they’re just like, couch potatoes,” Huang said.