Does your Sheltie watch TV ?

Bob R said:
I should have made my post clearer. I know the TV has some affect on him...some sounds, some music, some higher volume times when a commercial is louder than whatever programming preceded it...all occasions for Lucky to become more tuned to the TV...BUT now I am specifically talking about his brothers and sisters of the species...other Shelties sounding off, and him becoming noticeably involved...almost as if he gets what their all barking about...now what say you???

Bob
Click to expand...
Sheltie talk?? Could be. I suspect that it may be the pitch/intensity of the bark that gets his attention. I have noticed that Zulu totally ignores distant barks from other dogs, while other times he stops to listen intently, almost like that message is important while others are just noise.
 
Honestly it seemed to depend on the tone of the dogs. For the most part dogs are ignored. However, if dog has a stress bark it seems to cause a reaction.

There's a home advisor commercial with a doorbell that always gets a reaction. Will be glad when that one's retired.
 
I would NOT encourage it. You are teaching him to become dog reactive. Trust me on this one. My two shelties couldn't give a flip about TV. My shepherd, well. On our older flatscreen our shepherd didn't pay attention. Then I got "Dog TV". He loved it. He would bark at the stimulation, drowse as the relaxation, and watch the exposure. Then he started barking at exposure. Then he started barking at relaxation if there was a dog. I cancelled Dog TV. He is now so dog reactive in person I can't take him anywhere (or have to be prepared for a handling challenge). THEN we got a new TV. Good going, we got the super high refresh rate flicker whatever one. Now he can see ALL the dogs on ALL the shows and commercials. It's hideous to watch TV now. He watches for dogs out that funny window we have. Melli and Cubby are very non-dog-reactive dogs and they still don't give a rip. Every so often one of the shelties will watch the TV for about a minute. Shay, yikes. Last night he was so wound up by the running dog commercials on the Shark Week channel he started barking at seals, sharks, people. I had to turn it off. DO NOT encourage him to run around, get excited, and bark at shelties or any dog on TV. Encourage him to view other dogs as totally uninteresting, ho hum, no biggie, nothing to see here, etc. etc.
 
I will not make it a regular practice. It was more of an experiment than anything. I appreciate the replies.

Thanks

Bob
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top