Picture the scene: a weekend afternoon, naptime, and you're on the sofa. You channel-surf (or browse Netflix looking for a movie that isn't too heavy). Then your dog comes into the living room. He jumps up beside you on the sofa, but gets back down and becomes engrossed in the screen, staring at it from very close by. Later, you'll probably go out for a walk, to “stretch your legs,” but for now it's time to rest a little. You might even take a nap. Meanwhile, your dog doesn't take his eyes off the screen…
The same scene would work if you replaced the television with a computer or tablet screen. Because dogs, in case anyone still had doubts, love screens. They're hypnotic.
Of course, we aristoparents already knew that. You only have to watch them. But now it has been confirmed by recent research from the University of Central Lancashire in the United Kingdom. And not only that: by tracking dogs' vision (using methods similar to those used with humans), researchers have found out what type of audiovisual content they prefer.
And what do dogs like? Well, logically, what they like most is watching other dogs. To find out what they're like, what they do, how they live… This makes even more sense when there is only one dog in the family. You only have to see how this dog reacts while watching his favorite movie: Bolt:
The study also found that what initially captures their attention and draws them toward the TV or other devices is sound. Hearing a bark, naturally, is guaranteed to get a dog's attention. But so do whines, the sounds of toys, and the voices of people giving the dog commands or praise.
As for how they watch TV, dogs do it quite differently from us. They usually don't remain still, sitting in the same place for hours (as we do); instead, they move closer to the screen for a closer view. They also tend to walk repeatedly between their aristoparent and the television. And this is because dogs are, above all, restless and interactive viewers. Besides, they don't see the same things we do. Because, as you may already know, their vision is dichromatic. In other words, they have two types of color receptor cells and can see within two light spectrums: blue and yellow.
The creators of the first canine television channel, DogTV, have taken all this into account. For those who don't know it yet, DogTV is a channel exclusively for dogs, available in more than thirteen countries, where quality content of interest to dogs is given priority and all programming is selected by experts from around the world, with the aim of entertaining them while also reducing stress and separation anxiety.
Your dog may have been watching the screen attentively while you were reading this… Have you told him yet why you like ARISTOPET so much?