# 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:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/21 "2007-10-29T18:33:55Z")
My Corgi will bark at barking dogs or howling animals on TV. ---
**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, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/22 "2007-10-29T18:50:29Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] 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. [/QUOTE] Oh, I forgot - when there’s golf on TV, or we’re playing a golf video game, Eddles (the fat orange cat) tries to get the ball. Very distracting. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/23 "2007-10-29T18:53:59Z")
The editing seems to be the key for my pets (dogs and cat). If the shot is a steady look at an animal, they pay attention. When it’s a bunch of different shots stitched together in rapid succession, they don’t follow it. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/24 "2007-10-29T20:24:08Z")
At a particular point about 1/3 of the way thru the MASH theme music, my mothers’ sheltie will sit up and howl. Seems to be entirely based on the sound; she will do this even if she was dozing and not even looking at the screen when it comes on. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/25 "2007-10-29T20:41:20Z")
My dog growls and barks and jumps up at the screen if there’s another dog on, until we change it / ignore her / give her a toy to play with. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/26 "2007-10-29T22:00:25Z")
My pug normally pays no attention whatsoever to the TV. After we got high-def service, however, we noticed that at times she would stare at the screen for some HDTV programs, in particular shows on Discovery HD about underwater life. She seemed to stare at the fish swimming by very intently. For the record, my TV is a rear-projection model, not a plasma or LCD flat-panel. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/27 "2007-10-29T22:49:03Z")
My dod would walk around the TV set, if she heard a bark on the TV show. Never paid much attention to the pictures, but was curious about the sound. This to me, implies some reasoning ability-she obviously knew that some barks coming from a wooden box must have something behind it! ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/28 "2007-10-29T23:19:17Z")
[QUOTE=Beadalin] The editing seems to be the key for my pets (dogs and cat). If the shot is a steady look at an animal, they pay attention. When it’s a bunch of different shots stitched together in rapid succession, they don’t follow it. [/QUOTE] That’s a good point. I’ve seen one of my dogs look at the TV once. She looked like she was stoned, staring wide-eyed at a extended shot on Animal Planet (I’ve forgotten what animals were on). Then it cut to commercial and she lost interest. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/29 "2007-10-29T23:30:02Z")
[QUOTE=Max Torque] My pug normally pays no attention whatsoever to the TV. After we got high-def service, however, we noticed that at times she would stare at the screen for some HDTV programs, in particular shows on Discovery HD about underwater life. She seemed to stare at the fish swimming by very intently. For the record, my TV is a rear-projection model, not a plasma or LCD flat-panel. [/QUOTE] Good thing your puggy doesn’t react like [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIjmXIaHrqw). ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2007, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/30 "2007-10-30T00:54:52Z")
Dogs see differently than we do, obviously, if you’ve ever looked at their choices in a mate. The closest that men can simulate dog vision happens late at night in dark bars after consuming large quantities of beer. More seriously, dogs have a superior sensitivity to motion, which means that they see television as a serious of flickering images. This is better explained [here](http://psychlops.psy.uconn.edu/eric/class/dogvision.html). > [@](#): > > The frequency at which rapidly flickering light fuses appears to fuse into a constantly illuminated light is termed “flicker fusion” and can be used by investigators to gain information about the retinal rods and cones. In most humans, flicker fusion occurs at around 50 to 60 Hz, although some people can detect flicker up to about 70 Hz. It appears that the flicker fusion rate for most dogs may be as high as 70 to 80 Hz. How is this important to hunting retrievers? This may explain why our dogs don’t spend much time watching television! The refresh rate on televisions is about 60 Hz, hence we perceive the television image as a smooth image, but to our dogs it may appear as a rapidly flickering image. > Television in America, Japan and Brazil, among other countries is broadcast in NTSC which is about 60 Hz. Europe, except France, is 50 Hz. Most people do not notice this flickering, but it can be more noticeable with larger screens. You can see movement artifacts in commercials at movie theaters. The commercials are usually shot on video and then converted to film, so the motion isn’t natural. If you’re not aware of it, you may not pick it up, but once you are aware, it will bother you forever. Be warned. If you were to watch a movie at half speed, it would become obvious that it’s a series of still photos. Dogs would likely see motion on television the same way, which is another reason, in addition to the smell factor, that they are not processing it the same as we do. Plus, they have less tolerance for stupid shows. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2007, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/31 "2007-10-30T01:16:25Z")
As was just noted dogs see tv as a series of flickering images most likely. That said most of my dogs totally ignored it but one dog (this goes way back) would watch the TV intently when Miss Piggy was on. Any other time and it was like it wasn’t there. my current dog will take some notice if a dog is on TV and watch a bit with mild interest and otherwise ignore it. For our cats we bought a kitty video which was nothing more than someone filming a fish tank or box of mice and such. At first the cats totally ignored it and we thought it was wasted money. Then it occurred to me cats as very near sighted so I put a chair right in front of the TV and plopped the cats on it. They were mesmerized and loved it. They’d paw at the screen and run around behind the TV when something swam off the edge of the screen to go looking for it. Dogs are less nearsighted than cats but this may also have something to do with it. I have also noticed most dogs totally ignore reflections in a mirror. They see stuff in the mirror (i.e. if they see something behind them in the mirror that interests them they’ll turn around to look) but mostly are totally uninterested. My cats too…couldn’t care less. I did know one particularly stupid dog however who would bark at itself in the mirror. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2007, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/32 "2007-10-30T02:16:23Z")
And it should be noted that both cats and dogs are interested in motion in general, as anyone who has had a cat chase string will know. When I was a kid, our cat would sometimes get on top of the TV and bat at various images. ---
**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 30, 2007, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393/33 "2007-10-30T14:19:44Z")
[QUOTE=TokyoPlayer] And it should be noted that both cats and dogs are interested in motion in general, as anyone who has had a cat chase string will know. When I was a kid, our cat would sometimes get on top of the TV and bat at various images. [/QUOTE] While this is true (I had a cat that enjoyed football in the way described above), observing my cats behavior, they can clearly distinguish between “catlike” and “other moving quadruped” on the TV. They take an interest in those things catlike on the tv – they watch intently and try to “find” the cat as it moves offscreen – but ignore the movements of hoofed mammals and other moving objects. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-see-television-pictures/424393.md?page=1)