March 7, 2025, 9:13 am | Read time: 10 minutes
Soccer, an action movie, or an exciting series? Almost everyone who owns a television is likely to have a favorite program. But what does the dog actually watch? Anyone who answers “nothing” may be in for a surprise because they may have a dog that doesn’t share their taste in TV at all. After all, research has shown that dogs sometimes react to what is on TV. Some animals even seem to really enjoy watching TV. PETBOOK explains whether this is true, what they perceive, and whether dogs perhaps even have a favorite program.
When asked which is a dog’s keenest sense, the answer is probably clear to most people: the sense of smell. And the animals also perceive sounds very well. After all, they can hear even the slightest opening of the fridge door and are already standing in the kitchen full of anticipation as soon as you have taken a look inside. Vision, on the other hand, is widely believed to be underdeveloped in dogs. For many years, it was even considered certain that dogs can only see in black and white. However, this is not true, as numerous studies have now shown. Dogs can see quite well and also perceive colors — but differently than humans. The assumption that they only perceive their surroundings in monochrome is, therefore, wrong. Nevertheless, they see their world differently from humans, which is not only due to color perception. Movement also plays a role in how dogs perceive their environment. What does this mean in relation to dogs watching TV? PETBOOK investigates.
Dogs See Fewer Colors, but More Movement
The structure of a dog’s eye is not so different from that of a human: eyelids, cornea, iris, and pupil. However, there are significant differences in the structure of the retina, among other things. Animals, therefore, perceive their environment differently from how we do. This is particularly evident when it comes to recognizing colors and movements. Dogs mainly perceive yellow and blue tones as well as white. They also see contrasts and different shades of gray well.
However, they do not recognize red, and they also perceive green differently from how humans do. They see these two colors more as yellowish color gradients. So they cannot see which color a traffic light shows. This is why, for example, guide dogs that lead their human across a traffic light react to the brightness instead of the hue. This is mainly due to the fact that they only have two different types of photoreceptors in their eyes. For this reason, they only perceive colors from two color spectra — yellow and blue.1
Humans, on the other hand, have three types of these receptors, which enable them to recognize more color spectra. Put simply, we perceive the primary colors red, yellow, and blue as well as mixtures of these, such as purple and orange. Humans are also superior to dogs when it comes to seeing clearly at a distance. Dogs tend to be short-sighted. While the animals can only see sharply for around six meters, humans can see around 50 meters.
Dogs Probably See Objects at a Distance Better
This is because humans have numerous cones that are responsible for sharp vision. However, dogs can perceive moving objects at a distance much better than humans. This is due to its past as a hunting animal. It is important for them to be able to spot potential prey quickly and easily, even from a distance. In addition, dogs have around twice as many rods in their eyes as humans. They are, therefore, ahead of us when it comes to seeing at dusk and in the dark.2
Dog eyes also have the so-called tapetum lucidum. This special layer in the back of the dog’s eye reflects incoming light and, therefore, acts as a kind of residual light amplifier. This can be recognized by the fact that dogs’ eyes — just like cats’ — glow when light hits them in the dark. This layer is missing in the human eye. In addition, dogs have a larger field of vision than humans and can see at an angle of around 240 degrees, whereas humans can only see at around 180 degrees.3
Human TV Flickers for Dog Eyes
Not only do dogs perceive colors and movements differently than humans, but the so-called flicker fusion frequency is also different. This describes the frequency at which rapidly successive stimuli — such as images — are no longer perceived individually but continuously and, therefore, coherently. Subjectively, the viewer then no longer recognizes flickering but a continuous image. This is what happens when watching television, for example4, 5
Humans recognize a continuous scene, i.e., a film or another television program, from a frequency of around 50 images per second. Dogs, on the other hand, need around 70 to 75 images per second. So when humans watch their favorite series, the program flickers like on an old TV set from the dog’s point of view.
Nevertheless, animals can watch TV, and if you believe their owners, they even like this kind of pastime. According to a survey, as many as 87 percent of US dog owners are convinced that their dogs enjoy watching TV. And 57 percent of dog owners surveyed in the United States even leave their TV set on exclusively for their pets during the day.
TV Formats Especially for Dogs
There are now even TV formats that have tailored their programs entirely to our four-legged companions. For example, the “DogTV” channel, which originally only went on air in Israel, now reaches owners and their pets all over the world. The program was developed according to scientific findings, as its founder explained in an interview with the British daily newspaper The Guardian. It, therefore, differs from channels aimed at humans, particularly in technical terms.6
The channel also offers content aimed at dogs. The program, therefore, not only runs at a higher flicker frequency, which is pleasant for dogs. During development, consideration was also given to which colors, noises, and sounds dogs prefer. One of the findings was that cats are apparently rather unpopular on the screen, which should come as no surprise to some dog owners. The interview also revealed that barking from other dogs was not always well received by animal TV viewers.
Animated Dogs on TV Are Ignored
Among other things, the special dog program is supposed to have a relaxing effect on the animals — especially when they are home alone. This apparently meets the concerns of many owners who sometimes have to leave their pets behind for several hours. The dog should not get bored or even feel lonely when its owner is away.
However, Martin Rütter-trained dog trainer Melanie Hofmann from the DOGS Osnabrück dog school does not believe in keeping a dog occupied in this way, as can be seen from one of her blog posts. “I think it’s more about the owners wanting to ease their guilty conscience or, in the worst case, it serves as an alibi in bad weather when the human doesn’t feel like doing anything with their four-legged friend,” says the trainer. Although there are some cases of dogs reacting to the sight of other dogs on TV, this is an exception. “These are highly territorial dogs that do not tolerate strangers being in their living room,” she continued. The behavior is, therefore, apparently not linked to the program itself.7
Dog Hates Watching Soccer Matches on TV
A 2013 study published in the journal Animal Cognition showed that dogs can actually recognize their conspecifics when they are shown to them on a screen. According to the study, dogs recognize their conspecifics despite different breeds and different external characteristics. They also recognize barking and growling when they come from the device. They also recognize humans. What is interesting, however, is that real four-legged friends usually did not react to animated dogs during the tests. Presumably, their behavior and movements did not seem natural enough to them.8, 9
Strange, experimental camera angles also seem to leave dogs cold. They probably contradict what the dog knows from its own experience and are therefore ignored. Nevertheless, dog owners repeatedly report that their animals react differently to different programs. Veterinarian Jens-Christian Rudnick from the Rostock Veterinary Clinic, for example, reports on the clinic’s homepage about a dog that apparently cannot stand soccer matches.
However, according to the vet’s conclusion, the dog only sneaks out of the room during a game “because she can’t stand the expected tirades and outbursts of anger from her master.” And a dog that snuggles up close to its owner during a sad movie is not crying along with them, says Rudnick. As dogs are masters at detecting the moods and emotions of their humans, they would rather try to calm their sad owners.10
Sounds Have a Stronger Effect Than Images
How dogs react to the programs shown to them depends not only on the behavior of their owners but also on the personality of the animal, as dog trainer Melanie Hofmann has already explained. Territorial dogs react more clearly than anxious or calm dogs. Herding dogs are likely to react more strongly to moving objects than tracking and search dogs, which are less responsive to visual stimuli.
This is also the result of a study by Tufts University in Massachusetts (USA). Behavioral researcher Nicholas Dodman also found that dogs often react to images of conspecifics that they recognize on television. However, the animals generally tend to watch television for short periods of time rather than sitting in front of the screen and watching a program for longer.
Dogs, therefore, tend to watch television “on the side.” According to Dodman, the reason for this is that the animals focus on things that they find exciting at the time. They watch these for a few minutes but then look away again. As dogs’ sense of sight is generally weaker than their sense of smell and hearing, they are more likely to react to sounds than moving images when watching TV. They show increased attention to barking coming from the TV, a doorbell, or commands that they also know from their owners. Barking from the TV set, in particular, can get dogs excited, as numerous videos on the Internet show. However, the short clips also show that some animals are clearly uncomfortable with the situation. They appear restless, run back and forth, and turn to their owners11, 12
TV Is Not a Leisure Activity for Dogs Like It Is for Humans
Other dogs, on the other hand, quickly become accustomed to barking and images of dogs on television. They are “already desensitized,” as behavioral researcher Dodmann explained to the science magazine National Geographic, among others. If they spot another dog on TV, “they think to themselves: Oh, they just hang around on TV and don’t come out.”
In general, watching TV is obviously not a leisure activity for dogs like it is for humans. Veterinarian Jens-Christian Rudnick from the Rostock Veterinary Clinic agrees. In his opinion, the animals probably do not share their owners’ passion for certain programs. For dogs, on the other hand, the TV ritual itself, such as sitting on the sofa together, is more important than the program itself. This gives the dog a sense of security and safety.
Another reason why dogs “enjoy” watching TV: Dogs watch TV because their humans do. Dogs register very precisely what their owners do and how they react to certain situations. That’s why they also pay attention to what their humans are interested in on TV — and watch along.
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Conclusion
Dogs can watch television — their cognitive and biological prerequisites make it possible. Depending on their breed and personality, they react more vividly or not at all to what they see. Nevertheless, television does not seem to have the same significance for them as it does for most of their owners. Dogs only watch for a short time at a time. If they react to certain scenes, it is usually because they register conspecifics, other animals, or barking.
Certain movements and noises appeal to the animals, stimulate their hunting instinct or their territorial behavior, or remind them of commands they know. Even science cannot provide a clear answer as to whether dogs really enjoy watching television. According to behavioral researcher Nicolas Dodman, watching television can be more pleasant for some animals than lying at home all day “twiddling their thumbs” until their owners return. However, the relaxed time with their owner seems to be much more important to the animals.