You’ve always wondered, here’s the answer: do dogs actually watch TV?

If you’re a dog owner, chances are you think your dog watches TV with you. If you’re a dog, there’s never been a better time for you to watch TV. First, technology has improved enough that dogs can actually focus on TV screens now as newer, high-resolution screens flicker less than older, lower-res TVs. TV shows are even being made for them now: dog TV is a whole genre that seems to be mostly montages of golden retrievers running along beaches to gentle piano. There’s even the promise of fame: TikTok and Instagram are full of viral videos of dogs trying to eat food they see on screen, or whining during the sad bits of The Lion King.

But is your pooch actually watching along?

Dr Freya Mowat, a veterinary ophthalmologist and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s school of veterinary medicine, has looked into this (with the occasional help of Tavish, her Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever). As part of her research into canine eyesight, Mowat and her team designed an improved eye test for dogs that required a dog to look at a screen in their lab.

“We needed to design content that was interesting to dogs, because we can’t have them read an eye chart,” she explains. “When we see a patient in the clinic for ophthalmology, we wave our hands at the dog’s face. If they react, that’s the test – which is kind of embarrassing. And on the research side, we have these very elaborate mazes that take up a whole bunch of space and multiple hours to complete – very scientific but completely impractical.”

In 2022, Mowat conducted a survey of more than 1,200 dog owners around the world to find out what their dogs watched on TV; if they found dogs were more likely to watch cats, for example, Mowat’s team could put cats on their eye test to attract a dog’s gaze.

What kinds of films and TV do dogs find most interesting?

The survey’s top findings weren’t all that shocking. “Most dogs most like watching dogs – just like people like watching people, I guess,” Mowat says.

While dogs on screen ranked in the top spot, they also like watching all animals – but they are largely uninterested in watching us (humans ranked ninth in 17 categories, ouch). Dogs have more rods – cells in the retina that increase night vision – than we do, making them highly sensitive to movement. Owners reported their dogs were more likely to watch action and sci-fi content with them, genres that tend to feature lots of onscreen movement.

Seventy-eight per cent of dogs approached the TV when interested, while 76% vocalised in response to things they saw. Some dogs even went to look behind the screen or out a nearby window, to check if what they were watching was really there.

“We watch TV for enjoyment, for emotional realism, for whatever personal preferences we have. I think dogs watch TV because they’re checking if it is real,” she says. “There’s a reason why dogs go over and sniff the butts of the animals on the screen – they’re looking for the realism and wondering whether it’s worth paying attention to, in case it’s real.”

Mowat warns against leaving dogs alone with the TV on because it can overexcite and stress some dogs. Some dog owners reported in her survey that their pooches had knocked their TV over or even attacked it in response to what they had seen on screen.

“If you’re watching your dog watch TV and they seem to be happy or excited, rather than overwhelmed, then sure. But if your dog has reactive tendencies and you leave it alone with dogs on the TV, I would question whether that is truly a good thing for your dog,” Mowat says.

If you want to leave your dog with some kind of cultural enrichment, classical music – particularly solo piano music – has been shown in multiple scientific studies to have a calming effect on dogs. Bach, not The Bear.

Dogs prefer to watch dogs on screens more than anything else – and really don’t care about humans. Photograph: Javier Brosch/Alamy

Do dogs like cartoons?

About 10% of owners reported that their dogs enjoyed cartoons and animated films, especially ones featuring animals. “A lot of people mentioned movies like The Lion King, The Secret Life of Pets, Lady and the Tramp. But this could be down to the viral TikTok-iness of it – everybody’s seen a video of a dog watching The Lion King so they show it to their own dog,” Mowat says.

There is no evidence to suggest dogs can recognise cartoon animals by sight – so if your dog loves Bluey, he’s interested for some other reason. “Cartoon animals don’t mean anything to them, because they don’t exist in the real world,” Mowat says. “Dogs have some conceptualisation, but I think we probably project more on them than they are actually doing.”

Dogs often react to quadrupedal movement – such as an animal moving on four legs. Researchers at University of Padua’s Dog Behaviour Lab have tested this by taking footage of a moving dog and turning it into a simple dot matrix. Their research revealed that if they presented the dots moving upside down or backwards, dogs didn’t pay attention. But if it appeared to be moving forward, dogs paid significantly more attention to it – even though a bunch of dots looks nothing like a dog.

Can I train my dog to watch films with me?

Unlikely. While dogs can see what is on a screen, they are more likely to glance at it than focus on it.

“There are dogs that will watch movies, but they’re actually the outliers,” Mowat says. “Dogs mostly watch TV in very short segments, commercial-length amounts of time. I think there are some dogs that know it isn’t real and don’t mind, but there are many dogs who think TV is just boring. I don’t know that you can teach dog to be a consistent watcher of two-hour movies, versus one to five minutes.”

Do different breeds have different tastes?

In Mowat’s survey, sporting and herding dog breeds appeared to watch all content more than other breeds. Owners of hunting breeds most often reported that their dogs liked to watch birds, though she remains sceptical of this: “Conceptually, it makes sense if you have a hunting dog it would like birds. But it could be that you are choosing to show them birds because you are projecting, or that you pay more attention when your dog engages with birds. We just don’t know yet.”

So … why do dogs watch television at all?

It might be just because they love us. “I would say it’s extremely rare for dogs to engage with content in the same way as a human,” Mowat says. “There are some diamond dogs that probably love their humans so much that they choose to watch an entire movie with them, or react and bark at certain points. But is that because they did it once and got a cuddle, and they figured out that when they watch or react, they get more cuddles? It’s so hard to know.”

Mowat has had more interest in her research on dogs and TV than any of her other studies combined; three years on since her survey, dog owners still send her their observations of their pets.

“One owner emailed me to ask: ‘Would dogs inherently find other dogs being creative or funny [on screen] more interesting than just ordinary genres of canine activity?’ So, is there an Al Pacino for dogs, basically?” Mowat laughs. “I thought that was a really thought-provoking question.”