Welcome, dog lovers!

Hi everyone, 

Ever since the Feb 13th launch of DOGTV, people have been writing, posting, pinning, tweeting and using any available way to say what they feel about our new little TV channel. “TV has gone to the dogs!”, “dogs are becoming couch potatoes!”, “so now you’ll start fighting over the remote with your dog!” and so on. 

The truth is, we are very pleased with all your comments, and wouldn’t expect less from a revolutionary concept such as “television for dogs”. 

For all of you who have interest in DOGTV, or just curious about the whole idea and have questions about the channel, the science behind it or anything else, I’m hoping this blog will give you some answers. I will also post some dog stories, scientific facts, and once a week will do my best to answer your great questions about DOGTV. So let’s begin…

1. Technology. When discussing DOGTV, and other television networks, many people tend to ask about the way dogs actually see what’s on the screen. “Can they see it clearly?”, “We heard the screen is flickering” etc. These are great question we receive often, so here’s a short explanation: 

When we look at a picture on tv or a film in the cinema, it seems that we’re seeing a complete flowing image, but actually what we’re looking at is lots of individual frames. They seem to flow together because our eyes don’t notice the change between one image to the next. The speed of changing one frame to another is determined by the rate of CFF (Critical Flicker Frequency). For humans, the CFF is around 50-60hz, which means that we are able to see the picture smoothly. 

Dogs see the world much faster: their flicker fusion rate may be as high as 70 to 80hz, which means that when they watch an old CRT television, that refreshes at the rate of 50 to 60 hz, they see flickering images instead of continuous motion pictures. 

But technology now enables dogs to view and watch television.


With LED, LCD and plasma televisions, the refresh rate is much higher (100 hz and more), which means that digital television enables dogs to see programs the same as you and me. And, after 4+ years of observing dogs watching DOGTV programming, we’re certain they not only see what’s on TV – but they enjoy it, too!

(Weird, but In the UK, apparently dogs enjoy watching “Eastenders”!. go figure..)

2. CATS. You won’t believe how many questions we get regarding cats. Some cat owners are pleased (“my cat is watching DOGTV”!), some are worried (“my cat is watching DOGTV!”), and most are just curious (“When is CAT TV coming on”?). We are aware that many cats already watch television, and we are more than pleased that we are winning new viewers! Having said that, DOGTV is specifically designed for dogs, so we can’t guarantee cats will find it to be as fascinating as dogs do. Still, if judging by the pictures you may have seen on our Facebook page (thanks for sharing this picture, Kathy!), we couldn’t be happier.Yes, we also love cats. 

3. Stars. one of the best things about working on DOGTV content is the opportunity to meet lots of great dogs. Yes, we choose carefully the dogs that you see on DOGTV, and yes, they have to pass an audition (in the picture: some of the ones who made it and got to star on DOGTV).
We get lots of emails from dog parents asking us to have their pooch filmed. Well guess what? We are now beginning our search for our new DOGTV stars, to be filmed for DOGTV new programs. You think your dog has got what it takes? submit a photo/video.
4.  Research. Over the past few years, my team and I have been constantly researching and studying dogs, in order to create the best and most suitable programs for our beloved companions. It’s amazing how advanced dog science is nowadays!  A New study that came out recently demonstrated once again how clever dogs really are (did you know that an average dog is as smart as a 2 year old?). The study, done by the cognitive scientist ErnoTeglas of the Central European University in Budapest, revealed that if you show a dog a person on the TV screen, one who will call the dog and say hello to him, the dog will look back at the person and will even follow the gaze of the human on screen when he or she looks to one side or the other, a task not even chimps can do. The study was done with 22 dogs, all of different breeds, and they all kept their eyes on the human on the screen, whenever the human was talking directly towards them. When the human avoided eye contact, the dog stopped looking at him.
DOGTV films and records people, and especially children, speaking directly to dogs, using positive reinforcement and affirmations. This is very important for the dogs’ comfort and confidence.
So be good humans, give your dogs a hug - and leave a little love on.  

Have a great week,

  Ron      

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