Dog TV: For When Your Dog Needs a Lazy Sunday
If you’re a dog owner, you’ve no doubt experienced the horrible guilt that comes with leaving your pup alone. Whether it’s work, a business trip, or just going out with friends, there are times when you have to leave your pet behind. The expensive solution is doggy daycare or pet-sitters. But now there’s a new affordable option to try: DOGTV.
DOGTV is the brainchild of Ron Levi—a former host and television producer. However, DOGTV wasn’t inspired by a dog. DOGTV actually came about from Ron worrying about leaving his cat home alone. He wanted to develop a program to keep his cat relaxed and entertained, but, through his research, found that dogs had a much more urgent need for this type of program. That’s why DOGTV is specifically catered to dogs’ needs.
After almost four years of scientific research with top pet experts, the people behind DOGTV created programming meant to entertain, relax, and stimulate stay-at-home dogs. They broke it into three segments to provide just the right balance for the daily routines of their canine viewers.
During the relaxation segments, your dog will experience content designed to relax, reduce stress levels, and keep them calm through soothing sounds and visuals. The stimulation segments introduce active camera movements and exciting animations paired with sounds and frequencies that encourage playfulness as if you were at home interacting with them. Finally, in the exposure segments, DOGTV uses sounds and visuals developed through the most advanced veterinary science to comfort and habituate dogs by providing day-to-day stimuli.
Beyond the content, even the way DOGTV is displayed is designed for dogs. As dogs have dichromatic vision (they are red and green colorblind), they see the world in shades of grey, black, white, blue, and yellow. That’s why the developers of DOGTV worked to create advanced color separation and increased contrast and brightness to make it easier for dogs to see. The audio for DOGTV also focuses on rich, realistic soundscape with sounds that stimulate dogs in everyday life like nature sounds, the sound of squeaky toys, and even positive reinforcements such as “You’re a good dog.”
At this time, DOGTV is available on 22 platforms throughout the world including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Ireland, and South Korea. Soon it will be available in China, Portugal, Australia, and more. So do your pooch (and your wallet) a favor and try out DOGTV on DIRECTV or online.
Photos Courtesy of Dog TV
