How Do Dogs Watch TV? That Might Depend on Their Personalities, New Research Suggests
A survey-based study reveals how different dogs react to elements on TV, suggesting that personalized television enrichment could support animal welfare in shelters or at home
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We’ve all seen the hilarious videos—dogs watching movies or shows, just as engaged as their owners. Maybe your own dogs will even bark at their TV counterparts or try pawing at the screen. According to a study published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, pet dogs might engage with TV differently based on their personalities.
“I’ve seen them watch TVs or look at TVs. But do we really know what they’re extracting from it?” Jeffrey Katz, a comparative cognition researcher at Auburn University and co-author of the study, asks Science News’ Bethany Brookshire.
To get at the answer to this question, researchers distributed a survey to dog owners via social media between February and March 2024. The questions, answered anonymously, investigated dogs’ personalities and TV viewing habits, including the pets’ engagement level when animals were and were not on screen. The final survey sample consisted of 453 dogs ranging between 2 months and 16 years old, including 300 dogs from breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club.
Need to know: Can dogs watch TV?
Dogs can make out fast-flickering images better than humans can—so with older TVs, they would have seen a series of still images rather than a continuous moving video. But now, high-resolution LED screens refresh the picture at a higher rate, meaning TV shows will appear smoothly to your pet.
According to the survey results, dogs that owners described as excitable more frequently followed on-screen objects as if they were real, perhaps searching for them inside the room. Anxious or fearful dogs, on the other hand, were more likely to engage with non-animal stimuli like cars or doorbells.
In other words, dogs’ individual personalities seemed to impact their TV viewing habits. Their age, sex, breed and previous experience with TV, however, didn’t seem to play an important role in their engagement level.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, dogs were more likely to respond to animal stimuli than to non-animal stimuli. Specifically, 206 of the dogs were reported to always react to dog noises.
“I thought it was very well done,” Freya Mowat, a veterinary ophthalmologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who did not participate in the study, tells Popular Science’s Lauren Leffer, emphasizing that the team’s statistical approach made the survey-based study more credible.
The team hoped that by testing dogs’ reactions to TV programs, they might figure out how to make the pastime more mentally stimulating for pets. Watching TV might be a way for owners to entertain their canines at home, or it could be an option to increase the welfare of shelter dogs, per the paper.
“By knowing what types of television programming dogs respond to, dog television programming can be refined to what dogs are most likely to enjoy,” Lane Montgomery, a psychologist at Auburn University and a co-author of the study, tells BBC Science Focus’ Ezzy Pearson.
“In practice, engagement with television could provide dogs with an enriching, meaningful experience,” per the paper. And while the survey might not represent all dogs, it adds information about their varied responses.
The study is also a reminder, though, that not all TV may be a positive experience for your four-legged friend. Seana Dowling-Guyer, an animal behaviorist at Tufts University who was not involved in the research, argues that before tuning into their favorite shows, owners should learn how their pets react to different stimuli, per Science News—presumably to avoid further stressing an already nervous pup.
