Is There A Television Channel Just For Dogs?

28th June 2023

Whilst your dog is going through the various steps of cockapoo grooming and generally being pampered, it is often good to keep its attention so it does not get distracted, and an option many people try is to put on the television.

After all, there are a lot of TV shows that heavily feature dogs in a wide range of genres, from action-adventure shows such as Lassie and The Littlest Hobo, to game shows such as That’s My Dog, and even major annual events such as Crufts and the Westminster Dog Show.

However, there has been, for well over a decade, an entire television channel designed specifically with an audience of canines in mind.

Ironically, the concept was inspired by a pet cat.

The idea for DogTV came from founder Ron Levi’s experiences managing his pet’s separation anxiety. His cat Charlie apparently gave him the “saddest eyes”, so in response, he edited a montage of animal footage to put on the television and give him something to look at.

He found out that he was far from alone, with over half of pet owners leaving their TV on for their animals, but the problem is that even nature channels are not really appropriate for pets, with a lot of adverts, sound levels and human voices that can be distracting or even distressing for a pet.

DogTV’s content consists of three main categories of shows roughly five minutes in length carefully curated for a dog audience:

Stimulation, featuring content designed to engage dogs such as other dogs at play, dog park visits and engaging sounds and graphics colour corrected.
Relaxation, featuring calming music and images such as dogs sleeping and other animals going about their lives.
Exposure, which gently introduces potentially scary but common sounds a dog will hear at home, such as fireworks and vacuum cleaners.

The content is surprisingly different to what a human may expect, with a distinct lack of cuts to avoid surprising and annoying the dog.