Hi Humans,
I hope you had a great weekend!
Many times a week we get asked: “seriously? dogs watch TV”? The answer to this question is – oh yes!
We know that dogs watch TV. The videos you’ve shared, like
target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>this one, are only a taste; there are currently thousands of videos on YouTube of dogs watching DOGTV.
But the fact that digs watch TV isn’t new; since the early 60’s researches in universities around the globe have been testing the effect of visual content on canines, only to find that dogs react beautifully to images on TV’s. They especially react to their own species, as they do to other animals and to moving objects. Here are just 3 relevant quotes:
– Video sequence can be a useful tool in the study of how visual stimuli affect many aspects of canine behaviour” (“Can video images imitate real stimuli in animal behavior experiments?”, Richard B. D’eath, 1997, University of Oxford, UK)
– “The Behaviour of kennelled dogs is influenced by visual stimulation in the form of television programmes” (“The Influence of visual stimulation on the behaviour of dogs housed in a rescue shelter”, L Graham, DL Wells, 2005, Queen’s University, Belfast, UK)
– Dogs preferred the facial images of conspecifics over other categories and fixated on a familiar image longer than a novel stimuli regardless of the category” (“Dogs do look at images: Eye tracking in canine cognition research”, 2011, Sanni Somppi, University of Helsinki, Finland)
Did you know that many people have been leaving on TV’s for their pets – even before DOGTV? (57% in the US!). It’s highly recommended by different organizations like the Humane Society and ASPCA.
We formed DOGTV in late 2009, and immediately started research: What has been done, what do we know about dog’s vision, hearing, behavior? We created a dream advisory board with top pet experts, and started 3.5 years of studies. We studies more than 60 researches from universities all around the world, only to understand better dogs – their vision, their hearing, their needs. Our own research, done with Tufts University, clearly demonstrated that dogs don’t just watch TV, they prefer DOGTV’s content that was designed for them, to any other televised content.
I invite you to watch the following videos to get a better taste of dogs watching TV.
Have a great weekend!
Ron
