Does your dog stare at the TV? This is what they really see and the content they enjoy the most

Have you ever caught your dog wistfully gazing at the television screen, transfixed and lost in a world of its own? Or maybe your pet pooch will snuggle up with you to watch your favorite TV show with you.

There are hundreds of video clips on social media of dogs engaging or interacting with television images - their ears prick up, they bark or start wagging their tails... Many dog owners are curious about whether dogs can actually see what is happening on television and if they process that information the same way we do.

Which colors can dogs see?

Dogs won’t see exactly the same image as humans because their eyesight differs from ours. Dogs have dichromatic vision which means they have two types of color-detecting cone cells in their retinas, while humans have three, giving us trichromatic vision.

Dogs see the world in shades of Blue-violet, yellow-green, and gray. They are unable to distinguish other colors - for example, red will appear as dark brown/black.

Due to their innate hunting instincts, dogs are very adept at detecting motion and due to their rod photoreceptor-dominated retina, have excellent vision in low, dim light.

So dogs cannot only see the same images that we see when watching television, they are able to enjoy TV shows - just not with the same spectrum of colors.

What content do dogs enjoy watching the most on TV?

Studies shows that dogs do enjoy watching television and modern high-definition TV screens with faster refresh rates actually enhance their viewing experience. Most new TVs have a 60Hz refresh rate and dogs can perceive flicker rates up to 75 Hz.

The results of a study published last year in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science showed that 86% of dog owners said that their pooch watched screen content. In terms of excitement levels and engagement, 78% of dogs approached the screen and 76% made some kind of noise (barking, whining). And many owners put videos on for their dogs to watch on their own.

As for favorite content, dogs like watching other animals best of all and particularly other dogs (87%). Another winner was cartoons - dogs cannot get enough of them - again partly because most of them feature animals but also because they are alerted by the quick animation.

Herding and sporting breeds such as border collies and retrievers are the most likely to be avid TV watchers as their visual attentiveness to movement triggers their prey drive - that, along with their high intelligence and curiosity arouses interest on what’s happening on screen.

And of course some dogs have no interest at all in watching television. Of the 1,600 pets involved in the study, 94 could not be bothered regardless of the content (animals, ball sports, non-ball sports, vehicles etc).

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