Be sure to reach the end of this article to see the full video!

Joshua Byrne had left his dog, Shelby, to play in the front yard many times. He had no idea what the garbage man was doing.

One morning, Joshua decided that Shelby would like to stay indoors instead of playing in the yard.

So instead of attaching her leash to a post in the yard, Joshua let her run around the house. If Shelby started scratching at the door, he would know that she wanted to go outside.

For a while, Joshua focused on his work. But then he noticed Shelby acting strangely.

It seemed like the dog was suddenly desperate to get out. She had started scratching at the door really fast. She was also whining.

Joshua looked at Shelby in puzzlement. Then he noticed the noise that had riled her up. A garbage truck was trundling down the road.

Confused, Joshua opened his front door and started recording. Shelby waited at the door, until she saw the garbage truck pull in.

Then Shelby ran up to the edge of the yard. When the garbage man stepped out of the truck, Shelby ran up to him.

The garbage man started petting Shelby. Then the garbage man gave Shelby a treat.

After some more petting, Shelby ran back up to Joshua. The garbage man followed, keen to say hi to Shelby’s owner.

The two men shook hands. Shelby also ran up, wagging her tail and looking between them. It was like she was introducing two mutual friends whose paths had never before crossed.

Joshua struck up a conversation with the garbage man. It turned out that he and Shelby had been friends for a while.

Whenever Shelby was in the yard and the garbage man pulled in, she would run up to him and say hi.

Joshua was amazed to learn that Shelby had struck up a friendship without him even knowing it. If this had happened, what were Shelby’s other secrets?

The owner was pleased that he had started recording. He uploaded the video onto YouTube, where it soon gained over 10 million views.

Joshua has since become friendly with the garbage man. So Shelby has successfully made two humans become social with one another. This sounds amazing but actually isn’t all that rare a phenomenon.

In fact, dogs are the ideal “friend wingman.” There are studies that prove this.

Some have shown that strangers give more smiles and friendly glances to people when they have dogs with them. Others have shown that strangers are much more likely to tell people they’ve dropped money on the street if they’re walking a dog.

The reason why dogs are great at friend-making boils down to two reasons: Firstly, they show people who like dogs that the dog owner also likes dogs. Secondly, the friendliness of dogs has a psychologically contagious effect on humans. Basically, having a dog is a signpost that you have something in common with other dog people, and dogs basically radiate friendliness.

Of course, Joshua’s video only proves those points!

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Source: Short clips, We Love Animals, The Atlantic