Pittsfield — If you tend to be in a low mood around the winter holidays, and if you can’t shake that mood even after taking pains to eat and drink excessively throughout the season, spending money you don’t have on gifts for people you hardly know, and attending parties with coworkers you abhor, then it may be time to get serious and call out the dogs. I mean the eight celebradogs who will put on a holiday-themed comedy show, “Mutts Gone Nuts: Santa Paws,” at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield on December 10, at 2 and 5 p.m.
Since 1985, this canine troupe, trained by circus veterans Scott and Joan Houghton, has been delivering its unique blend of physical comedy and circus arts to audiences worldwide, including a seven-year residency at Dolly Parton’s theaters in Branson, Orlando, and Myrtle Beach. They still do what is essentially a circus act, with all the feats of agility you would expect, but in 2005, the duo changed gears to focus on their best comedic routines, in which the Houghtons attempt to match wits with their dogs, with mixed results.
There is no denying we could all use a little whimsy this time of year. Kids get all they need from the magical realm of Santa and his shelved elves. But adults and children can get all the whimsy they need from the rescued dogs of Santa Paws. (Yes, they were all adopted from shelters, none are purebred, and all are whip-smart.)
Frolicking with dogs is the perfect antidote to doom scrolling, the popular pastime of consuming endless streams of
disturbing news or social media content in spite of it contributing to feelings of anxiety, rage, and helpless despair. Who would know this better than The Washington Post, one of America’s leading purveyors of daily online dismay? The paper called the “Mutts Gone Nuts” show an absolute “must-see.”
Close contact with dogs has been shown to lower blood pressure, relieve anxiety, release endorphins, and reduce cravings for inflicting physical harm on one’s siblings at family gatherings. Watching dogs perform amazing feats of agility can have the same effect.
For thousands of years, humans have been asking the question, “Are dogs living with us because we feed them? Or are they living with us because they love us?” Emory University neuroscientist Gregory Berns has actually proved, through brain imaging, that dogs are far more interested in praise from their owners than they are in food. The evidence is right here, plain as day. Berns explains all of this in his book “How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain.” Thus far, however, science has failed to acknowledge what all dog owners know intuitively: that dogs, with extremely few exceptions, are noble creatures more in league with angels than most humans.
If you haven’t been getting enough whimsy (and who has?), then you need to see “Mutts Gone Nuts: Santa Paws” at the Colonial Theatre, 111 South St., Pittsfield, on December 10, at 2 or 4 p.m. Tickets, $15 and up, are available from the Colonial Theatre box office or at (413) 997-4444.
