So after many months of exclusion from the living room, my pup will finally relax and act appropriately in the living room, most of the time.

However, if there are animals on t.v., especially DOGS ... like "AIR BUDDIES" ... he goes NUTS. He even gives SNOOPY a 2nd Look. He will actually LUNGE at the TV and BARK non-stop. When this happens, I once again remove him from the room.

Anyone else have this issue? How do you deal with it?

Cheers!

Mine will bark at the TV when she hears dogs barking on the TV. That's about it.

She's gotten better about it, only perking up and listening, maybe a little grumble here and there.

I haven't really done much about it, maybe a tap on her muzzle or saying "hey" when she starts.

Top Dogs was on and they were showing some French Ring and she saw the Decoy ... It's like a light bulb went on in her head "I know who that is ..GET 'EM!" Even off the field she is driven. Ha ha! Luckily she turns off just as quick.

She 'll go up to the tube when Cesar is on every know and then too to check out the dogs, especially if they are nuts. But she'll sense there is no smell she just sorta shrugs and walk away.

Louanne I think I would approach it like seeing a dog, squirrel etc on the street it is all about desensitising and repetion, maybe using a rattle can to break the spell and redirect. It's basically just teaching a version of 'leave it' IMHO. Removing the pup from the room sure just removes the problem but the dog doesn't learn anything.

My GSD, Kira, does this. She actually hates the T.V...the better examples are when she was barking at the Simpson's cartoon dog and the Sirius Radio dog, also a cartoon. I can call her off the T.V. now, but basically she's a brat!

My Dobe doesn't go nuts, but he's VERY INTERESTED in dogs on TV. I first noticed this when he was a puppy; I was watching "8wks to 8 months" with Murphy in the room, and he went right in front of the TV and did everything that Ed told Zoe to do. It's still a running joke here: I don't need to train, I just need to let Murph watch the DVD's and train himself . Yeah, right .

The easiest way to keep him quiet when he hears barking on TV is to call him to me and have him lay down. I don't know if anything that simple would work if the dog were really keyed up though. Desensitization and correcting unwanted behavior would probably be the best approach.

That's right. Our pup reacted to the Pup DVD's too ... that was the 1st time I noticed it.

I'm sure that desensitation will help, and that will just take time and repetition.

Hi Louanne,
My dog also does this. When I first got him he did the same thing you described, lunged and barked at the tv...hitting it sometimes hard enough with his nose the it would make him sneeze.

This one was a tough habit to break. It took awhile and alot of re-directing to get him to realize that his behaviour was un-acceptable. I will say that he never totally got over this particular trait of his. I can see that he does still re-act to dogs or any other four legged creature on tv, be it a cartoon or real life. He just doesn't re-act in such an aggressive manner. Now he will just look at the tv and sometimes give a whine or two, but he doesn't approach the tv at all.
I would always watch him and learn his body language for when he would get into bark mode and immediately say his name and when he would un-focus on the tv and focus on me I would give him either a treat or toss his toy for him to play with. I would set him up to succeed by purposely putting on a channel that I know is showing any type of animal and just keep doing it again and again. Now its to the point where when an animal comes onto the tv he looks at me first to see if i've got something for him.
I never corrected him for the behaviour though. If I can teach a dog something without having to give a correction and make it a more positive experience I will. And the treat thing worked for him. I don't think it would be fair to correct your dog for this behaviour until he knows what it is that you want him to do (to not re-act to the tv) Get his focus on you or a toy or a treat and teach him that is much more fun that the tv. If you want to use correction have him on a long line, when he does the behaviour give the correction then treat. Its up to you. I just found it more pleasant for the both of us to go the positive enforcement route where this was concerned.


Wendy

It's funny, my little dog Cody really enjoyed watching Ed and the dogs he used in his video about pack structure and the family dog. He sat through one whole session. My husband and I wished we had film in our camera to take a picture and send it to Ed. It was so funny!
We had another dog who loved to watch only bears and big cats, dogs were boring to him. When we would turn the tv off, he'd look behind it, just in case the animals were hiding back there!
What a trip!

I've never had a dog be agressive with the TV. Doorbell on TV makes them bark, but that is about it.
Sharon Empson