I Bet on Losing Dogs

I Bet on Losing Dogs

Mitski

The “losing dogs” or failed relationships that Mitski pursues. This represents a sort of unrequited love in which Mitski’s feelings are not reciprocated with the same intensity.
The use of “baby” in the song could allude to how she wants someone to care for and to be cared for in return.

The metaphor of ‘betting on losing dogs’ refers to Mitski getting into relationships that she knows are doomed, or with people who are too damaged to love her – she knows that it will inevitably end badly, but she consciously gets into a relationship regardless.

She’s asking them to let her keep believing in the illusion that they are gonna work out or that they are gonna love her back one day.

It also alludes to the idea that she, herself, is a losing dog. She hopes that her lover will be there to comfort her when she is down, just as she does.

Anticipating the theme of “Thursday Girl”, in these lines, the narrator sings about her desire to feel the pain in defeat of rejection.

She longs for the intimacy and connection formed with her lover. An orgasm is known as a “little death” (from the french term “la petite mort”).

Her lover looks in her eyes, rather than Mitski looking in the eyes of the losing dogs. This reversal is interesting.

Also, the mention of orgasm could be a reference to Happy, perhaps contrasting the experience of being with a ‘losing’ lover with the experience of unsustainable happiness.