# Do dogs see television pictures? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 29, 2007, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393 "2007-10-29T01:29:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/1 "2007-10-29T01:29:14Z")
Seriously! Why aren’t dogs interested in TV? We had a dog once that barked if a doorbell went off on the TV, but wasn’t interested in the least if other dogs were shown on TV, or any other other animals for that matter. Is it a retina persistence issue? Are their brains not able to collate the moving pixels into a recognizable picture? I’ve seen cats react to TV pictures, but never dogs. What gives? ---
**Author:** ![KCB615](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea666f/32.png) [@KCB615](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KCB615)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/2 "2007-10-29T01:44:17Z")
My lab could care less about the television, unless a show with running canines is on. If there are dogs or wolves running left to right or right to left (never head on), she’ll run up to the television and nose-bonk the screen. Other than those specific times, she doesn’t react at all to the tv. Just my anecdotal evidence. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/3 "2007-10-29T01:53:47Z")
My parents old dogs, Charlie and Rupert, would go nuts and bark up a storm if a dog or horse showed up on TV. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/4 "2007-10-29T03:19:05Z")
Most dogs are primarily scent oriented. If they don’t smell another dog around then they figure there’s no other dog there. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/5 "2007-10-29T03:22:15Z")
I’m pretty sure animals can see the TV, and even recognize some shapes (animals, humans, etc), but the majority just _don’t care_ about the image. Anecdotally, most young animals I’ve known (kittens and puppies) have had a brief interest in the “animals” in the TV and mirror, but without any smell, or contact whatsoever, they begin to realize that it just doesn’t affect them, there is no threat/playmate, and so they ignore it. Given a certain realistic (to them) sound, they might react again. One of my kittens freaked out the other day as I watched a YouTube video of two cats “talking” (meowing) to each other - she went looking for them! ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/6 "2007-10-29T03:55:49Z")
One of my dogs has no interest in it, the other will pay very close attention to it if dogs are on…she’s also mesmorized by Baby Einstein. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/7 "2007-10-29T03:59:36Z")
[QUOTE=adam yax] My parents old dogs, Charlie and Rupert, would go nuts and bark up a storm if a dog or horse showed up on TV. [/QUOTE] When I was a kid, we had an otherwise very bright terrier who would go apeshit barking at horses - since she’d never seen one close up, we figured she didn’t realize exactly how big they were and thought they were simply a different breed of dog. She didn’t confine this just to horses walking down the road outside our house, but also barked at horses on TV and horses on the big screen at the drive-in movie theater. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/8 "2007-10-29T04:03:25Z")
It depends entirely on the breed of dog. > [@](#): > > Bertie watches television quite often. He likes horse programs and animal programs. I had another pug who would also watch television. If, for instance, another animal crossed the screen when he was watching it he would jump down and rush to look at the back of the television to see if it was coming out at the back. > > … > > But was there anything the area centralis kind of eye was particularly good at? Alison took a closer look at the retinas. And that’s when the team got their biggest surprise of all. It turned out Bertie’s area centralis had three times the density of nerve endings as a visual streak. It means that short nosed dogs with their area centralis see in much higher definition than other dogs. And there’s one thing that’s really good for … > > So when they’re looking at the owners face and different nuances of the owners expressions maybe they’re getting a bit more information than a long nose dog. This is perhaps a way of explaining how attentive and charming short nosed dogs are. > > Narration: And it might just help explain something else… Yes it does, and he does watch television quite often. > **[Catalyst](https://iview.abc.net.au/show/catalyst)** > > Exploring the forefront of science and technology, Catalyst brings you compelling stories looking at the latest in science from health and medical breakthroughs to astronomy, environment, and agriculture. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/9 "2007-10-29T04:39:49Z")
FWIW - Current pooch is a Bichon Frise’ and does not even notice the TV as anything other than a piece of furniture. Dogs can be barking: horses can be running and neying: pigs can be wallowing and grunting, birds chirping, people yelling… whatever. No reaction at all. Ever. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/10 "2007-10-29T06:02:56Z")
There was a thread about this very topic several years back. I’ll see if I can hunt it down. One poster said he walked his dog past a life size and realistic statue of a dog for a long time with the dog ignoring it as a lump or rock until one day something twigged in the dog’s brain, and it recognised the thing as a dog and responded to it. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/11 "2007-10-29T06:04:07Z")
[QUOTE=adam yax] My parents old dogs, Charlie and Rupert, would go nuts and bark up a storm if a dog or horse showed up on TV. [/QUOTE] We’re minding my sister’s dog at the minute and she reacts the same. She also reacts with barking to violence between individuals and to other animals. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/12 "2007-10-29T08:58:13Z")
[QUOTE=KCB615] My lab could care less about the television, unless a show with running canines is on. [/QUOTE] Could _not_ care less? My dog responded only to the sounds on television, not the images. But David Letterman’s Stupid Pet Tricks had a dog who would bark aggressively whenever it saw another dog on the TV screen. ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/13 "2007-10-29T11:20:58Z")
My cat will stare very intently if there’s ever another cat on TV. Other than that, he ignores it. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/14 "2007-10-29T12:28:21Z")
My dog watched the first Harry Potter movie intently and jumped up and down and barked when it ended. I was surprised since she didn’t like the book. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/15 "2007-10-29T12:35:51Z")
[Unca Cecil’s take](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_071b.html) ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/16 "2007-10-29T14:22:49Z")
My dog either doesn’t see the TV or doesn’t care. One of my cats is the same way. The other one watches TV intently with us. He particularly likes Buffy but doesn’t care for foreign films. ---
**Author:** ![solkoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@solkoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solkoe)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/17 "2007-10-29T15:47:19Z")
I asked a similar question about cats. [For your information.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=371457) ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/18 "2007-10-29T17:59:05Z")
My Lab will bark or growl at close-ups of people on the TV. She sometimes “watches” movies with us - it’s terribly cute. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/19 "2007-10-29T18:02:32Z")
[QUOTE=adam yax] My parents old dogs, Charlie and Rupert, would go nuts and bark up a storm if a dog or horse showed up on TV. [/QUOTE] Well of course. Who doesn’t like a dog and pony show? ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/20 "2007-10-29T18:11:28Z")
My cats are only interested in shows that feature cat-like and dog-like creatures. For example, in a nature documentary about the African Savannah, they take interest in the lions and hyenas but no interest in the gazelles. They are also intrigued by various cat-like and dog-like sounds they hear coming out of the TV speakers. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393.md?page=2)