TV Network for Dogs Launching
Will hit cities nationwide in August
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After four years of development and a trial roll-out in San Diego last year, the first TV network aimed at dogs will launch nationwide on DirecTV in August. The network, designed for pups of all breeds, will broadcast short video clips in three categories: relaxation, stimulation, and exposure, designed to help habituate dogs to domestic life.
“The dog-approved programming content was created to entertain, relax and stimulate stay-at-home dogs,” the company said in a press release. “So owners don’t come home to ripped-up couches, shredded magazines or a favorite pair of heels chewed to bits.”
DogTV has worked with several industry experts to help develop its programming, and cites a survey conducted by the American Kennel Club and IAMS showing that nearly half of dogs show “some interest” in what’s happening on the TV screen, according to their owners.
While older TV sets—which produced only 50 frames a second—were inscrutable to our canine friends, dogs can “probably see the new TVs just as well as they see the world in general,” Ernst Otto Ropstad, an associate professor at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science who specializes in animal vision, told ScienceNordic.