Does Your Dog Watch/Respond to the Television? - Page 2

I have an alpha female who has sat and watched the TV with the cat sometimes (they sit right in front of it and look at it straight on).  And the GSD tilts her head when people talk.

My dogs will react to wolves howling, but if I howl they will join in.  In the car they like to sing when sirens go by. They just  like to howl. I have never noticed my dogs watching the TV or even caring when I watch training on youtube. I have been watching youtube around Baden since I brought him home, even our own home videos playing at the beach or snow and he never takes notice. Yesterday I had a video of our last training in the PC drive and he went freaking  balistic.

He didn't seem to respond to the pictures just the sound. He jumped on the couch and over it a couple times, ran around the wall behind the computer, jumped up in my lap, barked like a mad dog when he heard our decoys and whinned when he heard me getting attcked and calling "here". I thought it was quite funny but my daughter was playing a video game and the crazy dog was annoying her, so I had to throw him outside. Before that, never so much as a cocked head at other dogs doing routines and training.

angus watches animal planet or dog whisperer, but claire has never shown an interest. angus will lay down with his "baby" (a stuffed toy he's had since he was 2 months old) and watch, moving his head sometimes, but just watching. he especially likes when there are german shepherds barking, and he is actually a bit intimidated by other gsd's in real life. his ears stand up even higher w/gsds and his eyes get brighter and more alert. if there is a dog in a movie or tv show he'll watch for the time that the dog is on screen, but once it's gone, he doesn't seem to care. he's never tried to look behind the tv for "anybody". he doesn't react at all with video games.

mine dont actually watch, but they listen.

my house dogs will bark if they hear one bark on tv.  its fun to watch the puppys around the tv.  they walk back and forth trying to figure out where the voices are coming from.

john

We have this 1 year old male russian blue cat who was fully accepted by my GSDs when we brought him home from the rescue shelter.  Our alpha female who is spayed, thinks he is her puppy and tries to nurse him occasionally and cleans him by licking him all over and he gets very relaxed during this.  Sometimes he will call out to her and she will come running to see if he is okay.  The cat has his own space blocked off by a gate the dogs can't get throught but he can get under.  Occasionally, we cook up chicken and shred it into pieces and throw over the gate for the cat to eat.  One time our alpha bitch followed him to his area and saw him eating his nice freshly cooked chicken.  She started whining and crying.  He looked up at her and took a fairly large piece of chicken and pushed it under the gate so she could eat it !  

This cat gets fairly frisky and naughty at times and likes to knock stuff off of tables and make a mess.  If we tell him NO or discipline him our bitch immediately cries and tries to interfere.  It's like in her view he can do no wrong and she doesn't want us correcting him.  Often they sleep next to each other on the couch or our bed.  Sometimes he runs and jumps of the shepherds backs or necks and bites (but not to hurt, just to play).  Our bitch never lets him win, and she ends up putting her mouth around his head until he gives up but never hurts him.  This sometimes goes on all day because this cat is very strong willed.  My sch2 male lets the cat eat out of food bowl when I feed the dogs and just backs up until the cat has had enought, and he wags his tail while the cat is eating.  There is nothing like a good GSD and cats can be a lot of fun for them.  My dogs love playing with the cat everyday.  They think he is their pet. I think the cat think we are all his pets and that he own our home.

I used to have a young male that loved to watch COPS... he would actually watch the show and then get interactive with it. When the sirens would go off he would start to howl just like a siren. If their were bad guys he would bark at them. He loved the K9 episodes!!! This is all while he was a puppy... at 10 months I had to move and give him up for adoption.

If I hadn't moved and had to give him away who knows how he would have turned out. I loved his prey drive!

My two will pay attention when they hear barking over the speakers on my computer. My TV is in the basement, and they don't go down there.

I rescued my very first German Shepherd while I was living in an apartment. One night, a National Geographic special came on about working dogs. Lili watched it with GREAT interest! When one of the dogs on the TV barked, she ran to the apartment door and listened, thinking the dog was out in the hallway once it vanished from the screen! (It wasn't in the apartment, so it HAD to be in the hallway, right? Pretty good reasoning!)

When the credits started to roll, she stood up, stretched, and went into the kitchen for a drink of water!

I think both she and my next GSD, Tasha, eventually got used to seeing animals on TV, and would only show interest if a dog barked. They'd cock their ears towards the TV, but that was about it.

I catch my dogs looking at certain things but it doesnt hold their attention long.   I have a movie (Never Cry Wolf) that gets their attention because of the howls.  I used to play it for my wolf hybrid to get her to howl, she could hear it from outside fifty yards away and would howl in responce.   I love that sound.

Greetings!

These dogs that watch television are special animals indeed. I had a 46 pound bitch that I aquired last year. She would watch televison, she would sit and stare at pictures of my other dogs on the wall. She would sit for a half hour gawking at a picture of my male competition dog. I knew this dog was special but I did not know how special. She was pretty much a nerve bag. BUT, she had special sensativities. I originally bought this dog to train for law enforcement. That was not going to happen. I trained her in OB. As she bonded with me, I noticed her keen sensitivities to my disabilities. Fate had it, that I found a family that was looking for a dog. Just a dog. That's all that this family wanted was, JUST A DOG. They had gotten their hopes up numerous times by alleged proposals from breeders to get them a dog. They were let down numerous times. This family was comprised of 2 adults, a cat and two young girls 6 & 8 years old. One girl was wheelchair bound and the other girl is autistic. I spent three hours with this family & dog socializing them together. I left that home without the dog and without a penny for her. But, what I left with was a peice of mind that this dog was going to provide for those little girls what no other dog or human being would provide. For the past year I have been gifted with emails from that family that have done nothing other than bring me to tears of joy. Money could never buy the wonderful feelings that I have experienced through this placement.

The dog that was mentioned in this thread, that hid behind it's handler when the wolves were howling is a dog with weak nerves. Please do not take it as an insult. It does not mean that you have a poor dog. That dog may be special in its own right.

Whoever may read my post, I have committed to providing a dog a year for the unfortunate. For instance, this year, I trained and provided a GSD to a family that lost everything in a house fire. They had no insurance. They lost their two dogs and cats. They have two young children. They now own a GSD that will provide them with joy and replace the loss they experienced. I was depicted to the children as being Santa's helper as I delivered the dog on Christmas Eve. I get more joy out of little nicities as such than standing on the podium. I do not have a dog for the lucky family this year. If you have a young dog that possesses special abilities or demonstrates quirky behaviors like watching TV, I want to know about that dog. If you are willing to donate the dog, I will train it and place it with the next unfortunate family that looses their home or has special needs children. I train in Schutzhund, but I also train GSD's for law enforcement and the handicapped.

My male doesn't watch but a dog barking on the TV will sometimes get him going or a doorbell.  

And I could forget about watching videos of bitework with the sound on!