What Dogs Really See on Television
Frank and Rachel watch television. Now, I don’t mean the sitting, snuggling, curled up and stretched out on my legs whenever I’ve turned on a movie or catching the news kind of watching.
I’m talking about those times when a dog (a real dog, no cartoon images for these two) appears on the screen. They perk up, tune in and are totally engrossed. A moment or two for a commercial featuring a dog, but ‘”The Dog Whisperer”, or a movie like “The Hotel for Dogs”? Frank and Rachel are a captive audience, #1 fans.
Frank and Rachel, for those of you who have yet to ‘meet’ them in other blogs, are the Puggies. Hiking, backpacking adventurers. Ambassadors of the ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ (accompanied by big slobbery smiles and extreme back-end wagging) to everyone we meet on our walks at the local park. Constant purveyors of fun. Continual spreaders of love and hugs. Brother and sister. Best friends (mine and each other’s) and thorough enjoyers of a good program starring dogs.
Anyone having an occasion to see Frank and Rachel watching TV inevitably comments on such complete attentiveness. Norman, the third of our canine trio, a Shih-Tzu/Jack Russell Terrier mix and the master mountain adventurer, cares not a bit what’s happening on the screen. A dog (or a Mink, more to his liking) would have to physically jump through the screen to get his attention.
Last week, after an out of town trip, I picked up Frank and Rachel from the home they stay at while I’m gone. Marlin, their ‘adopted grandpa’ and I stood outside for a few minutes while he shared stories of his week with Frank and Rachel and the other five dogs he was caring for. He laughed, saying, “don’t let a dog come on the television with Frank and Rachel around!”
That started me wondering – are dogs really watching the television? After all, Frank and Rachel had a lot of other new dogs to play with.
Doing some research, I read that 87% of owners, like myself, believe that their pets watch TV. In a survey conducted by the American Kennel Club and IAMS dog food, nearly half of those surveyed had dogs that showed some interest in what was happening on the television.
Because dogs don’t have the same depth perception that humans have, scientists take quite a different view. In most of what I read, researchers believe that it is the sounds coming from the TV set that capture a dog’s attention. And then they are only seeing movement and shapes rather than actual objects as we humans do.
The human eye discerns flickering movement at a rate of 50-60 Hz while in dogs, that same ‘flicker fusion rate’ is as high as 70-80 Hz. The older television sets (with a CRT screen) refreshed at the rate of 50-60 Hz. While we view the pictures in continuous motion, dogs see the picture in separate flickering frames.
The new LCD technology however, has changed all that. The refresh rate on the latest televisions is now 100Hz and higher, perfect for canine continuous viewing. The creation of 3-D televisions for home use may even entice dogs like Norman to catch a movie or two.
What’s to keep all our canine buddies from becoming couch potatoes? The singularly most important variable in the canine world – smell. Without all those intriguing scents that inhabit and color their environment, even the most diehard “Dog Whisperer” fans like Frank and Rachel, invariably head out the door, following their noses.
© Copyright Feb. 2011 by Pik Watson.
So science says dogs do can watch tv?! Great article/blog – very cute AND informative! I wonder what the puggies would do if Lassie came on?!
We have noticed the same thing : some of our dogs (and cats) have watched TV, one in particular would watch when animals were on, then lose interest when a commercial or other show went on. Some of the dogs didn’t care to watch at all, and wouldn’t even look at it.