A new study by animal psychologists at Auburn University in the U.S. found that a dog’s reaction to television varies with its personality.
To explore this connection further, the team included 453 pet dogs in the study. Each of these dogs had favorite TV shows. Programs featuring animals, though, drew strong responses from most of them, according to lead researcher Lane Montgomery, who has studied dog behavior and cognition for many years.
“Dogs particularly enjoy watching shows that feature other dogs and animals,” Montgomery told BBC Science Focus. More than half of the dogs in the study reacted enthusiastically to such programs, regardless of their sex or age.
Montgomery noted that dogs have been watching television with their owners for nearly a century. There are even dedicated channels and shows for dogs that can enrich their lives while owners are busy. Still, there has been very little research on this topic until now.
What Did the Animal Psychologists Report?
To address this gap, Montgomery’s team invited dog owners to take a survey. Owners answered questions about how their pets reacted to other dogs, animals, people, inanimate objects, and weather when those things appeared on television.
Impulsive dogs often tried to follow moving objects on the screen or checked behind the TV to see where the on-screen characters had gone. In other words, these pups expected to find those characters in the room with them.
Timid dogs showed stronger reactions to a person on the screen, to a doorbell, or to a car horn coming from the television.
The study focused on dogs whose owners reported that they showed interest in television programs.
“Watching TV can be an enriching and meaningful experience for dogs. By understanding which shows dogs respond to, we can improve programming for them, allowing them to get more enjoyment,” Montgomery said. The results of the study were published in the journal Nature.
