Dogs watching the tv

Jenko109

Jenko109

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Pretty normal for dogs to focus on the tv when there are barking noises coming from it, but what about when there is no dog noise?

I'm watching Homeward Bound and my whippet will actively watch the TV when there is a dog on the screen. No barking to be heard so it's not the noise hes paying attention to. He never normally pays any attention to the tv whatsoever. I'm sure he can recognise that there are dogs on the screen.

None of my other dogs have ever watched the tv unless there was a noise on there which got their attention.

Have you ever had a dog who will watch the tv?
 
Zak loved/loathed the TV. We couldn’t watch Bolt (animated film with a dog) or Antiques Roadshow when they had a dog ornament. He was fascinated by any animal but extremely reactive to dogs/cats. Even the AA advert with the puppet dog had to be turned off! I’m delighted to say none of the others care, although both youngsters had a very strong reaction to a torchy slow song the first time they heard it on TV. Very odd.
 
When Tawny was young she tried to jump into the television when their was a wildlife program on. It was meerkats. She sent the tv flying. We long joked imagine if she’d made it, a ‘herd’ of meerkats and a 6 month Labrador on the screen ?
 
My dog, a border collie crossed with a sheltie, used to love watching One Man and His Dog. He also used to sing along to the theme tune to Emmerdale Farm, but showed no interest in watching it.

My parents' first cat used to like to watch Pot Black and would dash under the TV set whenever a ball fell into a pocket.
 
Mine have reacted to big cats roaring in the past (and real ones...once I was taking a hike past the zoo and a lion started going, the dog went biccies) and one really likes electric toms on old editions of Top of the Pops.
 
We had Rottweiler who could follow a story! She was watching KungFu Panda 2 and when it got to the bit where the van is hanging off a roof and all the other characters jumped out leaving one behind asleep, she barked to wake him up. Fortunately he did wake up in the film.!
She and her sister aged about 6 months watched polar bear cubs rolling each other over in the snow and then did the same in our living room (no snow).
We had to switch off the David Attenborough programme where the goslings jump off the cliff face and many of them die, the Rotts were devastated. We watched baby otters being hunted by an alligator and the Rotts went to sit in their crate and hid their eyes. I don't know whether the Rotts ever understood that the otter babies escaped, as the film didn't show that, the narrator told the audience.
They loved the Baby Oleg meerkat ads and went to fetch each other to watch when those came on.
We have loads more stories, too.

It has been really peaceful and we have been able to watch animal programmes while we have just had the Labs but now the new addition has just started to notice dogs on the TV.
 
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The rotters watched the TV a lot, R rotter even liked animal cartoons, and on one memorable occasion shouted a warning to a raccoon asleep in a van ( think that was the film Madagascar). They also watched an episode of frost where a police dog was injured and tried to work out how to hold a leg up like it did. We had to make sure that the TV was up out of the way. We had to buy dad a new TV after one of them kissed it, when a sheep looked at them out of it?
 
mine watches a bit of the show jumping with me when it's on telly
I noticed her watching Ice Age very intently when Diego was on screen
 
Willow rarely paid attention to what I watched but she was observed watching the Lord of the Rings films on multiple occasions, she never really reacted to it besides looking a bit bewildered when Gollum screamed 'My Precious!' because one of my nicknames for her was My Precious.

Shadow doesn't usually watch either but he does come running when he hears the Skype ring tone because he loves to sit on my lap while I video chat with my sister and nephews.
 
One of our labs is an avid tv watcher, she has quite a varied choice of viewing preferences. The other one only reacts very loudly when a dog comes on screen.

Some of our collies also watched one man and his dog every week, totally transfixed.

One of the less bright ones kept growling at the gorillas on the screen and raced out into the kitchen, flew through the dog door to chase them away from her garden. She raged when she came back in and found they were still on screen. Once again off she went to chase them out of the garden. Mad dog she was?
 
We had a West Highland Terrier many years ago, who used to watch the television. When horses came onto the screen, he would bark and jump at the television. He didn't do it when any other animals appeared. :oops:
 
Our previous dog, a Parson Russell terrier, used to watch TV. He'd sit and look at the screen, though we had to change channel quickly once when One Man and his Dog was on and he just flew at the screen, wanted to get the sheep.
Blue likes wildlife programmes, he loved the episode of Serengeti with baboons and a programme about New Zealand parrots.
 
The only dog of ours who watches the TV is Lily-Rose, and weirdly, she loves watching anything with horses. The first time she did it was when she was a young dog and Olympia was on. She watched the dressage for ages!
She’s not bothered by other animals on the TV, but finds horses fascinating.
 
My tiny chihuahua adores watching the tv. It’s his absolute treat to sit on my lap for an hour after supper to watch tv. He especially likes detective shows, his little pointy ears are aimed fixedly at the screen. He gets very agitated by cctv footage, even someone watching it in a tv on the tv. We don’t watch anything with animals or animation of any kind with him in the room as he leaps at the tv barking but he starts quivering when the adverts come in as he knows there might be a black horse or a meerkat to throw himself at.
he also has strong options about people doing dangerous things, running in the dark, skateboarding etc he would be a fantastic health and safety officer .
 
My cat quite likes watching a game of tennis. Unfortunately for her, I don't.

She also watches me in the bedroom mirror. This is a fairly recent development. It's plainly sneaky tactics, whereby she can sit with her back to me and ignore me, whilst watching whether the ignoring is having any effect.
 
Ruby the JRT loves TV. She will sit in her bed or on the sofa and the expressions on her face are really funny. She has opinions on lots of things which she is quietly vocal about with growling, mumbling and mini barks constantly. She loves other dogs, farm animals and horses but also takes a fancy to certain people randomly and watches them intently. Fish are also of great interest. Moti on the other hand has no interest in TV at all, he is too busy monitoring the back garden through the patio doors for any pigeons, cats, foxes or hedgehogs that invade his domain.
 
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