Do Dog's Understand T.V. Or Not?

[burpo]

I found this great article about dogs watching t.v. Do you ever notice that dogs that you see watching t.v. bark at other dogs barking on t.v.? One of my dogs watches t.v. sometimes. And she once looked behind the t.v. when a deer was on. Very weird. The article is......:

http://archives.southcoasttoday.com/...9/e02li166.htm

I don't really believe that they understand t.v., but I do think they get interested in it. They also said that some dogs bark at bad political things that they "don't like", or something like that. It kind of suggests that they do understand. What do you think?
#1. Interested in the outdoor channnel?

#2. Or big buck political statements?

[Cassiepeia]

I can't get the link to work, but I don't believe they understand television at all. Human children don't understand it and they speak our language (mostly LOL), so there is no way an animal who doesn't speak our language, doesn't understand our way of thinking or our society, is going to understand TV.

I do believe they are often fascinated by it though. My sister's dog loved to watch the football. LOL It was all the fast moving people and noise she loved most, I'll bet.
I think dogs are like young toddlers, they love the movement, the pictures and the sound. However have no idea what the heck is going on.

Cass.

[IceyBlueSibes]

Originally Posted by Cassiepeia

I can't get the link to work, but I don't believe they understand television at all. Human children don't understand it and they speak our language (mostly LOL), so there is no way an animal who doesn't speak our language, doesn't understand our way of thinking or our society, is going to understand TV.

I do believe they are often fascinated by it though. My sister's dog loved to watch the football. LOL It was all the fast moving people and noise she loved most, I'll bet.
I think dogs are like young toddlers, they love the movement, the pictures and the sound. However have no idea what the heck is going on.

Cass.

I agree.

[britishbandit]

Yup, I agree too!

Mine get aroused by the tv if they see animals, sports (mainly those with balls), and weird "spacey noises". But I definately don't think they understand it. However, I have watched tv and movies and at times (only PJ for some reason), he has heard the word "down" or "speak" and actually done so while staring up at the screen! HAHA This happened recently too, when I was watching "Fierce Creatures" when John Cleese says to Kevin Kline, "Don't speak to her that way!", and PJ who was laying down paying no attention what-so-ever to the tv, heard the word "speak" and responded accordingly. A fluke perhaps, but Kevin Kline mimics John Cleese's character and repeats the line, again PJ woofed.

[greekblue]

I agree with Cass; "they are like toddlers,"
They do not understand, but they can respond to the sounds and movements. A toddler might not understand the words of a song on a cartoon, but will get up and dance.

[BICB]

I don't think they fully understand the concept of television or most of what goes on during any given program, but I do believe that there are certain words, tones, and subjects that they do understand.

Ankh always reacts to other animals on the screen, especially other dogs and large cats.

[rottielover]

I do not think they understand what they are watching, but Harley sits there and can watch a full movie without blinking. LOL
He has to be put away when any animals are on, especially dogs because he jumps at the T.V, whines and licks it, drives me and my daughter nutty

[Rivsky]

I too don't think they understand what it is, but if River starts barking about something he's heard on the TV I can tell him it's the TV and he looks at it and stops. I figure he thinks it's just some weird colourful and noisy box that's on pretty much constantly in the background!

[CdnRottieMom]

I don't think dogs understand tv either, but the way they react at times does almost make it appear like they do. I've noticed sometimes that dancing type reality shows where the song is upbeat gives Neyla the zoomies some times. It's funny because it looks like she's trying to dance.

[Beryl]

I think everyone agrees.

My dog loves any program with critters -- especially if dogs are on. He responds the same way as River when I tell him "It's just TV". I think he interprets that comment the same as "hush up" though.

[Sophie45]

Sophie only shows brief interest when she hears an animal or some strange noise, but that's about it.

My friend (who has like a 60 inch TV) has a pit bull, Buck, who sits and intently watches TV when he is watching an animal show, and I definitely don't think he understands the content, it is hilarious to watch, and it DOES look like he understands it, even though I'm sure it's just fascination with the animals and the sounds.

[prolibertate]

I love this question, lol. I'm not a TV watcher at all, but when I picked up Riley at 10 weeks old, I turned the TV on when I was working to get him used to different things around the house. He took one look at it, and as I flipped through the channels and hit a kid's cartoon, he laid down on the rug right in front of the TV and kept looking at it. Since then, depending what's on, he'll do this again. he appears to like when anything's moving a lot or there are high voices talking, which makes sense, especially considering how dogs see.

The night before last he was sitting on the couch next to me and kept looking at the turned off TV; when I turned it on he laid down and watched it for a bit. So last night I tried an experiment; he was sitting next to me on the couch and I picked up the remote and just held it...he looked at the remote, looked at the TV then looked at me, then looked back at the remote then the TV, then me again. Maybe this is totally anthropomorphic (and there's nothing wrong with that, lol), but I swear he was waiting for me to turn the TV on, so I did and he laid down and watched the TV again, while sat there laughing.

It got even funnier when the doorbell rang on a TV show and he got up and barked; I told him it was the TV and when the doorbell rang on there again he got up and didn't bark but looked at me, so I said it was the TV again; the third time it happened, he looked up, looked at me, I said it's the TV and he went back to his Kong Ziggy. What he was thinking about it all, I don't have a clue; but I thought he was being pretty cute.

[taraburner]

I don't think they "Understand" but they do get a kick out of the sounds, movement, etc.
Tara

[JamLevy]

My dog barely registers the TV. He may turn his head when it comes on or off, but other than that there's no real recognition

[Camz]

Dogs' Eyes
Reporter: Jonica Newby
Producer: Richard Corfield
Researcher: Caroline Penry-Davey

Transcript
Related Info
25 September 2003
Everyone wonders what it’s like to see the world through the eyes of another creature. Now it appears the textbook accounts of how dogs see the world has been wrong. It was thought, that like humans, all dogs have the same eye structure and see the world the same way. But to Veterinary Scientist Paul Mc Greevey that just didn’t make sense. He measured different kinds of dog’s skull, nose, and shape of their head, and he collected eyes from dogs that had died, and measured their eyeballs. Remarkably he found eye shape did change with the breed of the dog. It was a finding that overturned the standard texts on dog eyes. But then his collaborator Perth neuroscientist, Alison Harman examined the cells from the retina at the back of the eye. She found different dogs had a completely different retina. Amazingly, it means different dogs see the world completely differently. As this very amusing story explains this work goes a long way to explaining why some dogs chase cars and other just sit in your lap staring into their owners face.




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Transcript

Narration: Everyone wonders what the world looks like through the eyes of their pets. But for Paul McGreevey, one day, idle curiosity became a quest. It began when he heard about some research, featured on Catalyst last year. A Perth neuroscientist, Alison Harman had discovered amazing things about how horses see.

NARR (ex Riding Blind) To us, this view of Kings Park is from the front only. But a horse sees a clear, narrow strip going right around 320 degrees. Above and below that strip is blurred. What’s more, it can’t see the colour red.

And that got Paul wondering. What other secrets might be hiding in the eyes of the dog. Paul lectures in animal behaviour at Sydney University’s Veterinary School, usually accompanied by his dog Wally. And he had a hunch the textbooks had got something very wrong about dog vision.

Dr Paul McGreevey, Animal Behaviourist: Like many of the text books this is telling me that dogs have the same sized eyes regardless of their body size or their breed. Now that seemed very strange to me that the optics of the wolf were in a chihuana or a great dane.

Narration: So - did every breed of dog have exactly the same eyes, like the textbooks said? Paul contacted Alison, the woman who’d done the great work on horse vision. She didn’t know the answer, but she’d often wondered why her Pug dogs watch telly, when most dogs seem to ignore it.

Dr Alison Harman, Neurologist: 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.

Narration: They decided to team up and investigate. The first thing to look at was whether the size of the dog’s eye changed with different breeds. Paul started taking measurements of different kinds of dogs. He measured the skull, nose, shape of head. And, by collecting eyes from dogs who had died, he measured their eyeballs. To his delight the difference was really obvious.

Dr Paul McGreevey: This is the eye from a Rottweiler, and this is an eye from a Maltese, so you can see that there’s a clear difference in their dimensions.

Narration: So the textbooks were wrong. But they’re next discovery would blow the textbooks out of the water. Alison began looking inside the eye. She was examining the cells we actually use to see, which form the retina.

Dr Alison Harman: OK Jonica, now here’s a retina I’ve put under the microscope for you from a dog and you can see that this one has what we call a visual streak.

Narration: The visual streak is a high density line of vision cells which runs across the retina. You can see it clearly on this computer image. Scientists already knew dogs had a visual streak. But then Alison found something completely unexpected. Some dogs – didn’t.

Dr Alison Harman: This one doesn’t have a visual streak. …It has something called an area centralis.

Narration: Unlike the visual streak, the area centralis has the high density vision cells arranged in a spot. It could mean only one thing. Alison suddenly realised that different breeds of dog don’t just have different eyes, they see the world completely differently. And this is how.

Jonica Newby, Reporter: Howdy, hello Wally, no you can’t have the ball. Ok, what we’re going to do is Paul and I, we’re going to spread out, and then we’re going to show you this scene from each dog’s point of view.

Dr Alison Harman: You go over there and I’ll take the dogs, come on ... sit ...

Narration: Bertie and Wally both see in colour. Contrary to popular belief, dogs don’t see in black and white. They just can’t see the colour red very well. But that’s where the similarity in their worldview ends. Wally has the type of retina with a visual streak.

Dr Alison Harman: So what Wally can see is from all the way over there, all the way round here and over to there in a really good vision, not like us. We can only see the middle bit. But he can see really well all the way round.

Narration: But Bertie sees much more like a human. He has the type of retina with a dense, area centralis. Unlike Wally, he really isn’t getting the full picture.

Dr Alison Harman: He can see the middle quite clearly. But he can’t see the sides well at all, it’s more blurred for him. We were really amazed to discover that there was such variation in one species. It’s absolutely amazing.

Narration: But what’s most exciting Paul about this discovery is that at last it helps solve some of the great mysteries of dog behaviour. Like why some dogs chase things – and others don’t.

Dr Paul McGreevey: Well they chase things because they see them…

Narration: With his visual streak, Wally sees the bike clearly all the way across his field of view.

Dr Paul McGreevey: Wally is seeing the moving stimulus in his peripheral field, and following it… locking in on it and chasing after it.

Narration: Whereas Bertie only sees when it flashes through his central vision and it’s gone. There’s a bit of a blur happening but Bertie, really doesn’t see it at all.

Paul now realises the dogs most likely to hunt and chase are the ones with a visual streak. So how do you tell what kind of retina your dog has? Well, it’s directly related to the length of nose. Short nosed dogs have an area centralis. Long nosed dogs have a visual streak. And the dogs with the longest nose of all are these. The afghans are part of a group of dogs known as sight hounds. They’re born to chase. And we made them that way. Afghans were bred for hunting.

Dr Paul McGreevey: So now we know why the sight hounds have long noses. They need long noses to be able to hunt and see things in their periphery. When this dog sees something in her peripheral vision, she goes.

Jonica Newby: Can you ever let these things off the lead?

Dr Paul McGreevey: Very, very few owners risk that.

Narration: Not easy on the owner – which may explain why we also bred dogs without a visual streak.

Dr Paul McGreevey: It may be that we have developed the lap dogs and house dogs because they are less reactive to things that are going on around them because they’re not seeing them.

Narration: 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 …

Dr Paul McGreevey: 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.

Jonica Newby: Would this explain his tendency to watch Tv?

Dr Alison Harman: Yes it does, and he does watch television quite often

Link found at: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s953902.htm