Is your dog actually watching TV? A vet reveals one theory
Dog owners are likely paw-sitive their furry friends watch TV with them when they’re gazing at the screen.
In fact, TV has even become geared toward pooches with channels like DogTV, created for them and their owners. There are also plenty of viral videos on TikTok of people’s mutts reacting to shows and movies.
But are they actually watching TV — or just staring at a screen of colors?
Dr. Freya Mowat, a veterinary ophthalmologist and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine, explained that while dogs can see what is on a screen, they are likely glancing at it rather than focusing on it — and it’s not something you can train your dog to do.
“There are dogs that will watch movies, but they’re actually the outliers,” Mowat told The Guardian. “Dogs mostly watch TV in very short segments, commercial-length amounts of time.
“I think there are some dogs that know it isn’t real and don’t mind, but there are many dogs who think TV is just boring. I don’t know that you can teach dog to be a consistent watcher of two-hour movies, versus one to five minutes.”
Mowat and her team came to this conclusion during her research into canine eyesight, where they designed a modernized eye test for dogs that required them to look at a screen.
“We needed to design content that was interesting to dogs because we can’t have them read an eye chart,” she explained to The Guardian.
“When we see a patient in the clinic for ophthalmology, we wave our hands at the dog’s face,” she said. “If they react, that’s the test – which is kind of embarrassing. And on the research side, we have these very elaborate mazes that take up a whole bunch of space and multiple hours to complete – very scientific but completely impractical.”
In order to do this, Mowat conducted a survey in 2022 of more than 1,200 dog owners to find out what their pets watched on TV so her team could figure out how to keep the dog’s eyes on the screen — and the finding weren’t too surprising.
“Most dogs most like watching dogs – just like people like watching people, I guess,” Mowat said.
While dogs were the No. 1 thing they liked to watch on TV, they also really enjoyed watching other animals — but dogs mostly didn’t care to watch humans.
Only about 10% of pet parents surveyed said that their animals enjoyed cartoons and animated films — especially those with other wildlife in them, such as “The Lion King,” “The Secret Life of Pets” and “Lady and the Tramp.”
“But this could be down to the viral TikTok-iness of it,” Mowat added. “Everybody’s seen a video of a dog watching ‘The Lion King,’ so they show it to their own dog.”
There’s also no evidence to support that dogs can recognize that cartoon animals are indeed animals, so it’s probable that they’re invested in these cartoons for other reasons.
“Cartoon animals don’t mean anything to them because they don’t exist in the real world,” Mowat said. “Dogs have some conceptualization, but I think we probably project more on them than they are actually doing.”
Researchers discovered that 78% of dogs would approach the television if they were interested in what they were seeing and 76% barked in response.
Some pups even got up to check behind the screen or a window nearby to see if what they were watching was actually there.
“We watch TV for enjoyment, for emotional realism, for whatever personal preferences we have,” Mowat said. “I think dogs watch TV because they’re checking if it is real.
“There’s a reason why dogs go over and sniff the butts of the animals on the screen – they’re looking for the realism and wondering whether it’s worth paying attention to.”
But if they can’t understand what’s going on, why do dogs watch TV with their owners?
It might be just because they want to spend time with you.
“I would say it’s extremely rare for dogs to engage with content in the same way as a human,” Mowat shared. “There are some diamond dogs that probably love their humans so much that they choose to watch an entire movie with them, or react and bark at certain points.
“But is that because they did it once and got a cuddle, and they figured out that when they watch or react, they get more cuddles? It’s so hard to know.”
However, Mowat warned against leaving your four-legged friend alone to watch TV since it can either overexcite or scare them.
“If you’re watching your dog watch TV and they seem to be happy or excited, rather than overwhelmed, then sure,” Mowat said. “But if your dog has reactive tendencies and you leave it alone with dogs on the TV, I would question whether that is truly a good thing for your dog.”
Some dog owners who participated in the survey admitted that their dogs have seen something onscreen that caused them to knock over the TV or attack it.
If you do want to leave your pup alone with some sound, Mowat suggests classical music, particularly solo piano music, which has been found to have a calming effect on dogs.
