Our cat likes to jump up onto the TV stand and sit on top of the cable box, which sits in front of the TV, and stare at the screen from about 4 inches away. He does often enough that it’s a running joke in our house about programs featuring “the big, giant cat”.
One thing that has always fascinated me is how some pets are sensitive to TV noises and visuals (and radio and taped noises) and others don’t respond. Like a mirror too, some pets respond others don’t acknowledge the reflection at all.
I had a cat that loved basketball. He chased the ball.
My former cat Toby used to pay rapt attention to “Meerkat Manor”.
He also liked to meow when he heard the birds singing on The Beatles’ “Blackbird” track, which I occasionally listened to on my XBox 360.
My family’s TV has YouTube capabilities. My family used to play Youtube videos of birdfeeder birds for the cat, which she was so absorbed in that one time she actually pawed at the TV. We were worried that, since it’s a flat-screen TV, that she could do damage to it if that happened again. As a result, the cat is no longer allowed to watch bird videos on the TV.
Nope. The Crew aren’t allowed in “The House” (they live in the back room built off the laundry room and that’s where they stay).
Only exception was for Doxie when he was recovering from IVDD. He got to sleep in a cardboard box (ironically, a “Chewy” box) next to the couch and watch Price is Right with me. It kept the other dogs off his ass and gave him company when the others were outside.
He didn’t seem to give a rat’s ass. But he does howl to Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain.
I’m another who has had many pets over the years. I’ve only had one who cared about tee vee – but he cared about it a lot! A border collie named Opie, he was.
He preferred television with animals on, but he’d watch anything for literally hours. It was easy to travel with him. I’d flick on the tube and he’d sit there staring from just two or three feet away. I once fell asleep with it on, woke up several hours later and he hadn’t moved at all.
I would affix a pair of glasses over his ears because it made his intent stare seem very intelligent. Unfortunately, the spell was broken when I turned off the tee vee – and his stare at the screen never wavered.
More than once, I caught him looking through a window to watch television in the house. He really was addicted.
Fascinating story, OP. I didn’t have the same experience, but maybe it was that unique dog-training content that kept your dog’s attention. My last dog was a Bernese Mountain Dog, generally noted for their high intelligence, and this guy was particularly smart – I have all kinds of stories about that. But the TV never held any attraction for him. At most, he might glance at it occasionally.
I had a cat that would watch hockey with me. If they showed Chris Osgood(the Detroit goalie at the time), she would bat at his head. My dog pays no attention to TV ,but my roomate’s cat loves Food Network shows.
I have a timer I use alot that crows like a rooster. Dogs bark at it sometimes. Cats ignore it. The cats do like bird sounds on TV, if they are in the room.
The only time one of my pets showed any interest in the TV was my cat Crow. He took an interest in auto racing. Seemed to think he was going to catch one of those race cars coming out the back of the television.
We owned a cat who ignored the television until one day we were watching a nature program talking about pikas. The pika did its high pitched call and the cat was instantly transfixed. He got up on the coffee table and stared at the rodent and followed its every movement. Then he hopped onto the entertainment center and was looking behind the television and back in front again. We laughed and thought it was great fun until we realized he was preparing to pounce at the screen and had to rapidly move him off the table. Amusingly, since it was on a large screen high def television, the pika was about five times his size so I don’t know what he though he was going to catch.
After that day, he was acutely more aware that the television was a thing that existed and might interest him. He didn’t really watch random stuff but small critters on nature shows would grab and hold his attention though never with quite the initial zeal of those pikas.
Has anyone used DogTV? My dogs never even batted an eye at it. I thought it was a cool idea, don’t think it works though.
The Olympic curling fascinated Little Shit. She’d sit and watch it, occasionally getting up on her back legs to get closer to the TV. Only the curling.
ETA Shitty is a cat. And I have photos of her watching curling.
I knew a cat that loved hockey on tv…she would lie on top of the old CRT set and kept an arm down to try to catch the puck. Another cat I knew preferred watching tennis games. She sat on the floor in front of the tv and would try to catch the ball. A friend told me one of her cats loved nature shows on tv, particularly ones featuring big cats.
My most recent cat had no interest in tv whatsoever. He liked listening to the classical music station on the radio, and (seemingly) deplored my tendency to listen to the local rock station. I used to joke that my cat had more sophisticated taste in music than I.
Dog 1 (Simon) and I were watching a home movie from my brother when a long scene of Brother’s dog demolishing dandelions in a park came on. Simon watched briefly, let out a bark, and ran to the front window, obviously expecting to see Brother’s Dog in the front yard. Simon was puzzled and disappointed that Brother’s Dog wasn’t there, and he never fell for the DVD dog thing again.
Dog 2 (Bowie) was genetically a herder breed. He continually tried to herd the neighbor’s white poodle, which was not appreciated by the poodle. One day Bowie and I were driving in the country and passed a field of sheep. Bowie had never seen a sheep before, but he was instantly enraptured and was ecstatic as long as he could see them.
My sister’s parrot (Shadow) loved the sound of Garrison Keillor’s voice and would dance and make happy noises whenever Garrison was speaking on the radio.
I had a Cavalier King Charles spaniel who didn’t pay much attention to TV unless there were monkeys, which she hated and would bark at.
She went semi-berserk one time over an ad which showed an orangutan wearing headphones.
Yep. Here’s Neo watching Jeopardy with me:
We had a cat when I was a kid who was fascinated by the radar sweep arm on the weather radar channel. She’d sit on top of the TV (this was the days of the big console TVs) and lean over the front of the screen and try to bat at the sweep arm.
My current cat will sometimes watch hockey on TV. He’ll sit on the coffee table and watch the players skate back and forth.
This is what our cats do. Three out of our four current cats will watch bird and squirrel videos and sometimes fish/aquarium videos. There are really nice, high quality videos on You Tube by someone called “Paul Dinning” that have pretty, scenic backgrounds and all the birds, squirrels, and ducks your cats could ask for.
Our cats will watch intently for several minutes before wandering off. Even the oldest cat, who is fairly jaded, gets sucked in sometimes.
There are also some videos that are just basically cartoons with little mouse shapes or red dots moving around, and two of our cats will watch those also!
My old beloved orange cat who passed away two years ago would watch birds on YT if I held him up to the screen in my arms.