This Shelter Takes Gorgeous Photos of Black Dogs With Vibrant Flowers to Help Them Get Adopted

With thousands of dogs in need of loving, forever homes, shelters will do anything to get their charming charges some much needed exposure. Lately, with the help of social media, the trend has been going in the direction of taking adorable pictures of these sweeties and sharing them with the world in hopes of catching the eye of a pet parent-to-be.

Which is exactly what the Humane Society of Utah has been doing under the hashtag #blackflower. By adorning their adoptable black dogs with brightly colored flowers to help showcase their sweet and sunny dispositions, the hope is to combat something known in shelters as Black Dog Syndrome. Simply speaking, black dogs tend to wait longer to be adopted than their differently colored counterparts.

The cause for this can only be guessed at, but one theory is that facial features don’t show up with as much definition due to the darker the fur color, leading people to make less of a connection with the dog based on photos alone. By adorning these pups with big, garish flowers, it draws the eye to their face and once you see it, you can’t help but fall in love.

“Hey, I’m gorgeous already, but it never hurts to accessorize.”

“I will tolerate this thing on my head if it means I can go home with you.”

“No, no I am not Carmen Miranda. That was a bowl of fruit, get it straight.”

“If I stand here super still, do you think a hummingbird will take some interest in the landscape architecture on my dome?”

“Aloha. I should be your new fur baby.”

“Seriously guys? Everyone else gets big, colorful flowers and I get stuck with the ‘fall harvest’ motif?”

“See how I’m not eating the foliage? I promise not to eat yours either if I can live in your house.”

All image source: Humane Society of Utah/Facebook