What dogs see on TV depends on their temperament

Maybe your Pomeranian is a little too into the chicken jockey scene in A Minecraft Movie. Or your pit bull may seem excited for the next season of Wednesday. Really, though, he wants to curl up in a onesie on the couch watching Bluey with your younger siblings. Some dogs pay attention to television. What any get out of it may depend on their individual personality.

That the conclusion of a survey of more than 400 dog owners. Its findings appeared July 17 in Scientific Reports.

Let’s learn about dogs

Some owners leave a TV on to keep their pooch company. There are even channels devoted to content for dogs. These might stream soothing music or videos of dogs and other animals. Some even show “exposure” to scary things, such as vacuum cleaners and doorbells. The idea is that if the dogs see the scary things on TV, they won’t be upset when the vacuum comes out for real.

“I’ve seen them watch TVs or look at TVs,” says Jeffrey Katz. “But do we really know what they’re extracting from it?” he asks. Katz is a comparative psychologist. He works at Auburn University in Alabama.

Dogs probably don’t see TV the same way we do, he says. Most human eyes have three types of color-sensitive cells, called cones. Dogs have only two types of cone cells. So they see a more limited range of colors. “They don’t see the same thing we see.” Still, he adds, “that doesn’t mean it’s not similar.”

See Spot stream

Katz was part of a team that sent out a survey via Facebook and email lists. More than 450 U.S. dog owners responded. These dog parents answered questions about TV objects and sounds to which their dogs respond. They also shared whether their dogs bark, wag, chase or growl at TV content. 

About 45 percent of the owners reported that their pups responded to images or sounds of other dogs on TV.

How dogs responded didn’t seem to depend on breed, age or sex. But it was affected by personality. More excitable dogs tended to follow moving objects on the screen, owners reported — especially if it was an animal moving.

One coauthor observed her own dog’s behavior. Lane Montgomery is a cognitive and behavioral scientist at Auburn. Her Jax is a 3-year-old Catahoula leopard dog. “He is especially a fan of dog shows,” she says. Jax — and other dogs in the study — even look behind the TV to see where an offscreen object or animal “went.”

More anxious dogs, however, didn’t always love TV. They tended to respond negatively to sounds like doorbells or doors opening. “I think a lot of times we think, ‘Oh, TV is going to be enriching,’” says Seana Dowling-Guyer. She is an animal behaviorist at Tufts University in North Grafton, Mass., who did not take part in the study. “But the reality,” she adds, “is sometimes it’s too much. It’s overstimulating.”

Some dogs also might respond to TV because their owners do, she adds. Reports from dog owners don’t necessarily include what the human was doing. Say someone is watching sports. It’s possible that this person is “watching a game on TV and [now] gets excited,” Dowling-Guyer says. Their dog might get excited too, just because the person is.

Before turning on the TV, think about what might trigger your dog, Dowling-Guyer says. “People really should know their pets and know their personality,” she says, “and how they react to different types of TV programs.” Maybe your Schnauzer really loves watching true crime with your mom and your collie likes Survivor with dad. But a more anxious pup? It might just benefit from peace and quiet.