Why Does Your Dog Bark At The TV?

When a dog sees the moving pictures and hears the odd noises from the television, they may begin barking at it. There are many potential reasons for this.

A dog may feel frightened of or threatened by what’s on the screen. Or they may feel excited about what they see, then become frustrated and upset when they can’t reach it.

But how can you stop this from happening? Well, start by finding visuals and audio that your dog explicitly reacts to. For example, you can pull up videos of small critters running across the screen, or a sports game where a ball is tossed around a lot. Arrange these videos in a good order – the ones that get very small reactions first, building up to ones that really set your dog off.

Get those videos up on the television and gather some treats for training purposes. Take your dog and sit with them in front of the TV. Press play on the videos. The first one should only encourage a mild response – maybe enough to make your dog curiously sniff at or investigate the TV.

Now, figure out at what point in that first video they start to react. When does your dog start getting antsy and going nuts? Once you’re able to predict the beginning of their intensity, start again. This time, before they get overly excited, give them a treat and praise them for their calmness. This will show your dog that watching TV nets treats when they’re just watching curiously and nothing more.

The next step? Go to the second video and work on that one, too. Slowly build your way all the way up to the final video, until your dog is calm and happy no matter what’s on the screen!

Feature Image Source: Pixabay