What is Dog TV?
Dogs home alone…
DOGTV is technology designed with images and sounds to both interest and sooth dogs. It is based on 60 scientific studies and been created by dog experts & scientists to keep your dog happier throughout the day if they must spend time alone. Understanding important differences between the way humans and dogs respond to TV will help explain the idea.
Sense of smell is a dog’s primary sense but sight and hearing are extremely important. Dog friendly frequencies and gently positive affirmations help to generate a comfortable atmosphere. If using DOGTV don’t adjust the colour on your screen… it will look a little different because it is designed around a dog’s visual colour spectrum to make it more interesting for the dog. You’ll see plenty of dogs and other animals on DOGTV and yes, they’ll be moving because movement is what interests’ dogs. You’ll also hear some gentle human praise in softly spoken words.
There are no sudden loud noises such as they’d hear if we were watching an action movie and all the sounds they hear will be interesting or relaxing to dogs. DOGTV has been very clever by blending in occasional low level arrays of sounds e.g. alarm or thunder to help dogs become accustomed to those things they might hear in their homes from time to time. This gentle exposure can help desensitise them. Because dogs have cycles of activity and resting throughout the day, the image content will vary from higher to lower activity so that if your dog is engaged and active it provides another segment will slow them down again.
So what’s our take on all this? We’d like to think DOGTV was designed only for the sake of dogs and could be described as a form of enrichment. However, humans may be tempted to use such a product as a means of feeling less guilty about leaving their dog alone. We cannot emphasise enough, that no product can substitute your dog spending time with you, with other folks, or with other dogs. In addition, we do not use DOGTV because we are in the business of keeping dogs occupied. If you would like your dog to be occupied send them to Daycare with us. So why are we including DOGTV in our blog? Because products for dogs are always of interest to us and they are great for discussion. There is no telling if your dog would enjoy DOGTV unless you tried it and we wonder how measurable the benefit is. It may be ok for your dog if you ‘have’ to leave them alone but please remember there is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to canines. Dogs which don’t benefit from the images may benefit from the sounds.
Checking the forums, some customers highly commend DOGTV, others report their dog has no interest whatsoever. Some have a reported a noticeable change in behaviour after several weeks. One person reported that their 2 dogs now go off to watch DOGTV before their owner has stepped out the front door. Another declares there’s no way they’d leave an additional electrical appliance on in the house while they were out, particularly with their excitable dog who might knock over the TV. Best thing to keep in mind is that whatever the reason you’re contemplating DOGTV, it may or may not be the answer. Ask yourself first if there is another way you can enrich your dog’s life. And if your dog has been permitted to develop considerable separation issues please seek professional help.
The DOGTV 24/7 channel took years of research to create and has been going since about 2008. If you’d like to know more check out their website below. The page it takes you to has a video ‘Ruff Cuts’ so you can see an example of some of their program content…
Leah & Angela OMeara
Hound Dog Day Care (Specialists in Dog Minding & Dog Boarding, Pet Sitting Brisbane & Doggy Day Care Brisbane)