Thursday, July 16, 2009

interesting factoids about the dogdogdog's viewing habits


This is Riley, and he's a rescue dog.

He's lived with us for just over a year now. He was real sick when he got here. He had fleas and ticks and mange and kennel cough. He was underweight and just a wreck. He and a bunch of other dogs at his shelter were about to be put down, but he was saved :-)

Riley watches television.

Riley goes bananas when he sees dogs on the television. Lately this has also extended to the sound of dogs barking on television (even though the dog is not on screen), and there have also been a few incidences of him going apeshit over cartoons of dogs.

Riley barks, runs to the television, does some amazing vertical high jumping, and then runs into the next room (the room behind the wall where the tv is mounted) to see if they are on the other side of the screen. If he's been working on a bone or dog treat, he will sometimes go and relocate it.

Riley also does the barking/jumping for horses. And to much of our dismay, he's also now doing this with just about anything that appears on the screen and has four legs and fur. We can't watch many Nature shows anymore, and to be honest, that bugs me.

Riley does NOT bark when I play the dvd I have of a tropical fishtank. In fact, he sits very quietly, and stares at it. He'll perk up his ears and tilt his head back and forth as the fish swim past. While we were at the Monterey Aquarium this weekend, I bought dvd's of both the Sea Horse and the Jellyfish Exhibits. I'm going to try them out on him this weekend. If he barks at Jellyfish, I might just cry.

But here's the most interesting fact about my dog's tv viewing habits. Even though he goes totally bazerk-o when there is any sort of HINT of dog on television....he will NOT bark at the commercials run by the SPCA. You know, the ones where the show all the pets that are abused, abandoned, locked up....the "we need your contributions" commercials??

When THOSE play? Not a PEEP out of my dog.
In fact, he'll even go sit in the corner and mope until it is over.

7 comments:

Carol said...

That is one adorable dog. I like the way he is smiling for the camera. Well done, my friend, well done.

~Donna~ said...

He remembers...poor little fuzzy baby...

Oh boy do I remember what he does with horses. hee hee

Hi Riley, you cute puppy!!!!

The Bon said...

My in-laws' dog watches tv. Barks at bulls, horses, dogs, mattress sales jingles, westerns. And now that he's totally blind? He barks at the sounds of those things since he can't see them anymore. Silly pug. I have a video of him doing it somewhere.

Linda said...

I think you need the Dog Whisperer. LOL

Janice in GA said...

My Jasper bark at dogs on tv too. He's got to where he recognizes music for commercials where dogs are present, and will perk up wherever he is when he hears it.

He barks at the SPCA commercials too.

In fact, if you say to him "Where's the dog?" he'll look at the tv FIRST. Even if the tv's off.

He's not too bad with other animals, though he does bark at the Slowskys (turtles, or tortoises) on the Comcast commercials.

Lorena said...

ROFL! I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who is going to recommend The Dog Whisperer...!

MsAmpuTeeHee said...

Carol ~ why thank you :-)

Donna ~ Yah! That's right! We could hardly get through Lord Of The Rings! Ha!

TheBon ~ Ha. That's hilarious! Actually, Riley is part Pug, too.

Linda ~ I was tooootally thinking that. For another reason, though. This warrants a second dog post.

Janice ~ OMG that is awesome.

Lorena ~ Seriously. He needs it. As I said to Linda above, there's another reason why. More to come.