Do dogs care about the TV show you’re watching? A new study suggests they do

Dogs may be our best friends, but does that necessarily mean they enjoy watching our favorite TV shows? According to a new study, the answer largely depends on your pup’s temperament.

Lane Montgomery, a research graduate student at Auburn University, recently completed a study that involved 453 dogs, ranging in age from 2 months to 16 years, and their guardians. The team published their findings in Scientific Reports.  

To kick the study off, participating dog parents answered a series of questions, including whether they had tried to teach their pooch how to watch TV and how many hours per week their TV is turned on. The survey also looked at how many seconds, on average, the dog was engaged with the TV.

Armed with this knowledge, the researchers observed the dogs’ reactions to both animal and non-animal stimuli, as well as their tendency to follow objects on the screen. During the study, the dogs watched TV for an average of 14 minutes and 8 seconds.

In short, dogs described as “excitable” were more likely to follow on-screen objects, seemingly unaware that they didn’t exist in real life. Meanwhile, dogs considered to be “fearful or anxious” were less likely to follow objects on the screen, but more likely to react to non-animal on-screen stimuli such as car horns and bells.

Overall, however, nearly half of the dogs surveyed –– 45%, or 206 –– responded most often to animal noises on the screen, including barking and howling.

While analyzing dog TV viewing habits is cute in and of itself, the researchers say their findings could have practical implications, such as training for dogs who misbehave while the TV is on.

Similarly, the researchers determined that watching TV could offer dogs an “enriching and meaningful experience,”  as phys.org describes it.