Do your dogs ever watch tv?

Maria and Brando are not much interested in televisions. But this may be because the  programs that we watch are of little or no interest to them?  Few of them, after all, feature dogs or other animals.

Last night the BBC showed a film made by David Attenborough.  It was made in the Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya and followed a pride of lions.  Some of the shots were taken with powerful telephoto lenses. So the lions looked very close up on the screen.

The reaction by people`s pets was so considerable, that many owners have been phoning newspapers to describe it.  Cats were particularly interested.  Some jumped onto tables to get a better look.  Others jumped on top of the television set, so that they could bend down over the screen and touch it.  Dogs also reacted to this very spectacular animal filming.  Of course many people now have giant flat screen tvs, so the lions must have looked almost life-size to the cats and dogs.

Maria, our Podengo Medio, did not see the lion film and we have a tiny screen or only 3 foot width.    But she has reacted to the sound from our television.  Hunting foxes with dogs, with the hunter riding behind on horses, dressed in red jackets. is now restricted in England.  But occasionally an old film is shown with a pack of foxhounds.

These emit hunting yelps, as the mill around waiting for the horsemen to set off. Maria is keenly interested in this and watches for as long as the dogs can be heard.

General Patton in France used to have an english bull-terrier . which accompanied him all the way from Normandy to Prague. He named it William the Conqueror. A sergeant was detailed to accompany the dog, which often rode in Patton`s jeep.   When  the film of Patton`s life was shown on  British tv, we watched it.  Maria was not interested. But at the very end, as the actors playing Rommel and William depart into the sunset, the dog emits a cry.   Hollywood had obviously dubbed the film, for I recognized the yelp  as a call for help.

Maria and our labradengo Brando recognized it too.  They were in another room, but raced each other in to help me, after I had apparently made this familiar cry for help.

David Attenborough, the BBC wildlife television commentator is continuing his series on the big beasts of the jungle and plains.  As well as lions, these have included hyenas and tigers.  Pet owners report that both cats and dogs are fascinated by these films, when they are shown on giant, flat-screen televisions.

The series is likely to be shown in other animal-loving countries such as the US, Canada and Australia before too long.  Pets will probably react in the same way.  Some of the largest dogs have actually broken wall-mounted screens, in their forceful lunges at the wild animals.

According to dog experts it is the sight-hounds such as whippets and podengos, which will take the most notice of these films.  That is because they are attuned to very fast-moving images.  Modern flat screens change image at a rate of 100 cycles per second.  This is far faster than in the black-and-white screen days when the wagon wheels in westerns often seemed to be turning backwards, because of the slow refresh rate of the screen.

Sight-hounds have a far higher capacity to spot movement than humans.  Have you noticed your Podengo with squirrels or rabbits?.  They also see far better in low-light.  Older tv`s gave a poor picture for dogs, showing jerky movements and unrealistic images.  The new films seem more real to them, although they are not able to distinguish reds and yellows at the longer end of the spectrum.

Reports on social media suggest that the sight-hounds are particularly fascinated by hyenas, which are more dog-like than the big hunting cats.  I am looking forward to seeing the wolves.