Mick watching Waffles the Cat from GloGirly.com
I’ve had 8 dogs in my life and had about 500 dogs stay at my house over the last 6 years (pet sitting). Rarely have I seen a dog watch TV, but some certainly do. It’s a really amusing thing to watch! Cats do it too!
It’s always fun to see what our 4 legged friends pay attention to. One of my past dogs, Domino used to watch the sky, planes going over and also to see if dark clouds were coming (scary for her). Some dogs are hyper viligant in the environment and others are complaisant about it.
I realized Mick was a TV watcher early on, maybe he learned if from his previous life. I got a DVD at a training conference years ago and popped it in the player when I got home. It has video of farm animals with added sounds from all sorts of critters. Mick is enthralled with it and I can keep him busy for 30 minutes or so on a rainy day. It’s very stimulating for him and helps wear some of that energy down when we are waiting for the sky to part for a walk. Romeo and Minnie never look at the TV, it’s as if it’s not there. Now, I know some dogs will get too overly aroused by this and begin to bark, so game over if that happens. I used to have a client that had a dog who would bark at any show on Animal Planet. She created alternative things for the dog to do or just turned the TV off. Eventually, the dog could remain calm with the animals on the TV.
In this You Tube video these two cats play patty cake, it’s hilarious!
Mick get’s highly aroused around cats, fortunately it’s all about the chase and not violence. Something I have to manage with friend’s cats and neighborhood cats that wander. I discovered recently, that Mick likes to watch Cat videos! When I’m at my desk, working, Mick will ask to come into my lap and if I let him, I’ll choose a You Tube cat video for him to watch. It’s hilarious to watch him look at the speaker with the sound, then the cat on the screen. He gets very excited and I only let him watch for a few minutes, but he truly seems to enjoy it.
What does your dog pay attention to that is “human like”?
Mick and I watched the Disney movie “Bears” recently. He watched for about 45 minutes, quiet and enthralled.
our boston terrier wathes tv with us all the time. its so funny 🙂
It’s the sounds that attract them, I believe. I wonder if they can actually see an image on the screen? Nose, eyes and ears…their trademark.