Does your dog bark to a TV ad? Cat watch nature programs?
By Gina Spadafori
July 26, 2007
Last week some friends stopped by to visit, along with their dogs, Gypsy and Stella. The whole family had been travelling for more than a month, starting at home in Florida, heading to Alaska, back down to Northern California and heading home again, visiting friends all along the way.
While they were here, Bruce and Doris showed off Gypsy and Stella’s neat-o trick, singing to the ringtone on the cell-phone. They asked if our dogs liked the Empire Today carpet ads, which Gypsy and Stella also find highly entertaining and worthy of comment.
I’d never heard of the company, which is apparently an East Coast thing. But turns out G&S aren’t the only dogs who like the ads. From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Dear Dog Lady:
I read your column about the dog yelping at the Empire carpet commercial and started to laugh. My 2-year-old Chihuahua does the same thing. My girlfriend and I, however, think it’s funny. My dog has even won a contest at Petco. My girlfriend saved the carpet jingle on her phone and we played it back on the store speakers. Everyone laughed and we won a gift certificate. So there are other dogs that react to this. – Gary
Dear Dog Lady:
My dog, Rocky, a 6-year-old Pekingese, barks at the Empire carpet commercial. I adopted Rocky seven months ago from an older gentleman, and I thought the voice in the ad might sound like his previous owner. Rocky barks, but he does not act as if he is hurt by the sound. It’s more as if he is talking back to the television. I manage it by laughing about it. He sometimes barks when he sees dogs or cats on the television but does stop when told. The television is only on for a few hours a day, so I live with this bad habit. It is more important to me that he is friendly and happy. – Brigitte
So I went to the company’s Web site and played the ads, figuring there would be a barking dog, a doorbell or something? I don’t get it. What’s the deal, East-Coasters? What, exactly, are your dogs barking at?
Is there anything else on TV that get your pets’ attention? I’m proud to say that Clara the kitten loves to watch horse-racing. She couldn’t care less about any other programming, but when the gates open, she watches the race.
Just like mom, that girl!
My cats only react strongly to real bird calls on nature shows. They’ll stalk around the TV looking for them. If there is a cat meowing on Animal Planet they’ll look up and listen, but no stalking.
Comment by Andrea 2CatMom — July 26, 2007 @ 2:02 pm
Off topic but dog related—some of you might want to participate in sports-dog fighting survey at Sports Illustrated. Sorry, don’t know where else to put this item.
http://tinyurl.com/2mz5vc
Comment by Rose — July 26, 2007 @ 2:08 pm
Years ago, when I had a tv, I had a cat who loved the nature programs, and learned the theme music. She would rush in and sit down in front of the television and watch the whole program - from time to time she would put her paw on the screen or look behind the tv. She never missed her favorite shows.
Comment by Nancy Nielsen — July 26, 2007 @ 2:14 pm
That d*mn taco bell comercial where the bell rings. Everybody goes nuts. What’s up with that? It’s not like we have a door bell…
Comment by Schnauzer — July 26, 2007 @ 2:15 pm
My dog Fudge will bark at any dog on TV (and sometimes other animals, but mostly just dogs). She’ll do this even if the dog on TV isn’t making any noise. I know she just wants to play with the dog…she wants to play with every single dog she meets. :)
Comment by Janine — July 26, 2007 @ 2:30 pm
When my Newfie hears a dog on the Telle, he slowly gets up, goes over, and pees - hits the lower screen everytime. Ugh!
Comment by Jamie — July 26, 2007 @ 2:37 pm
Forgot to mention, our late cat Sport used to love baskeball on TV. Would chase the ball on the screen for hours…
Comment by Schnauzer — July 26, 2007 @ 2:39 pm
maybe it’s the background music?
thankfully dot doesn’t react to them. i did have a sports watching cat, which was always good for amusement when the games got boring ;)
Comment by straybaby — July 26, 2007 @ 3:13 pm
My golden is all ears when she hears the birds on TV.
Gina,
Clara reminds me of an Irish Setter we had years ago while living in Chicago. Every nite when the sports came on and they showed Arlington race track - no matter where Terry was she came running to watch the race and sat until it was finished. She loved watching the horses out of the gate. This same dog was very amused with the old Chuckwagon commercials. She would run around the TV wondering where it went! She really brought lots of smiles with her antics.
Katie
Comment by Katie — July 26, 2007 @ 4:45 pm
One of my 4 year olds, Gracie, loves basketball games. She’s the only one of the cats who watches any tv.
Comment by catmom5 — July 26, 2007 @ 6:12 pm
My cat, Thomas, has an unnatural affinity for “RENT”. I haven’t the slightest idea why, he just.. does. If it’s on, he makes a beeline for the couch and won’t get up until it’s over.
Comment by Gwen — July 26, 2007 @ 9:55 pm
Thomas is brilliant and perceptive.
Comment by Christie Keith — July 26, 2007 @ 10:02 pm
My dog LOVES Animal Planet. When any of the Animal Control shows are on and a dog is in pain my dog whimpers along with them and when they show the dogs running around happy my dog stands up and wags his tail!
Comment by Ana — July 27, 2007 @ 5:36 am
Our chihuahua mix which we adopted from a local rescue group only reacts to one local commercial for mattresses. It is one where a lady speaks in a very high soft voice. He will awaken if he is sleeping and stare at the tv. His eyes get very large. I have thought about calling the company which is located in the same general area where it is recorded he was found,but we have had him for three years and she probably just sounds like his previous owner.Besides we paid $85 to adopt him and have spent a lot of money on him. What would you do?
Comment by Julie — July 27, 2007 @ 8:37 am
One of my dogs, Zoey, barks at alot of things on TV. *Any* sort of animal, in fact I can’t ever watch Animal Planet. At all. She doesn’t just bark, she attacks the TV.
She also doesn’t like hugging, people on bikes (or other wheels like skates etc.) or wrestling. It’s pretty annoying actually.
The funny part though is that my other dog always looks around frantically while she is doing that, like “OH MY GOD, I’m supposed to be helping/barking, but I don’t know what’s going on!”
Comment by Great Dane Addict — July 27, 2007 @ 10:27 am
There are certain tones in theme songs that some dogs react to. Our cocker used to howl at the theme from The Young and the Restless and also the NBC nightly news. I’d heard of other dogs who did the same thing, even saw one on Letterman’s Stupid Pet Tricks once.
Comment by KathyF — July 29, 2007 @ 11:37 am
Similar to Andrea’s cats … my cats don’t always notice the chirping of birds because of human voiceovers. However, one will actually jump on top of the TV and closely follow (upside down) the movement of birds across the screen, either visually or by putting his paw on the screen to track them. (I’m still in the dark ages and have only a 26” nonplasma TV, go figure!).
I’ve often considered but have never purchased one of those nature videos to run as kitty entertainment; maybe I can rent one from the library to see if they’re interested. I’m really lucky in that one of my rooms (the den) has a wall of windows that provides tons of active (and passive) fun time for my kit-lets.
And what about voicemail/phone messages? I always wondered if one of my cats thought there was an actual person in the machine based on his focused attention on messages. He ever so kindly was trying to set them free by repeatedly knocking the machine over to help them (haha).
Comment by Sandy — July 29, 2007 @ 4:11 pm
hi hay i love cats and dogs lol love them
Comment by patricia — August 6, 2007 @ 5:22 am