TIM SMITH/BRANDON SUN
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A friendly pitbull pokes his head inside the gazebo at the Victoria Ave. East Dog Park to see what is going on inside on a warm Tuesday afternoon. Hopefully, if and when DOGTV arrives in Brandon, he’ll continue to exercise outdoors — and not become a couch potato!
Television has come a long way over the years, and today’s TV provides a variety of viewing options for a variety of interests.
There are television stations for people who enjoy sports, cooking, music, home renovations, gardening and fashion too. With all of these specialty stations out there, it was only a matter of time before television started to go to the dogs. And now it has.
A new breed of television station has been launched in San Diego and in New York called DOGTV. This television station was designed after three years of research, and offers 24 hour a day, seven day a week programming — for dogs!
The network designed this station to use colours and sounds that our pets respond best to. Dogs can only see colour at the lower end of the colour spectrum, for example, so the station is designed to optimize yellow, indigo and violet colours.
The programming is designed to provide stimulation, to offer entertainment and to encourage relaxation in our canine companions. Using segments that are three to six minutes in length, the changing scenes are especially designed for our pets.
Scenes that stimulate your pet may feature things like butterflies, birds, dogs playing, balls and pets splashing in a pool.
The exploration scenes are designed to help expose your pet to different visual stimuli, like busy streets, children playing, car rides and doorbells.
The segments for relaxation include pets sleeping with sounds of a piano and birds chirping in the background.
Many pet owners leave the television or radio on as company for their pets when they go out. This station removes high-frequency sounds that are bothersome to canine ears, such as heavy metal music, explosions and gunshots. The sounds on this station are designed with our dogs ears in mind.
So, you might be asking — why a station for dogs?
The idea behind this television station was to provide entertainment and comfort to dogs who are home alone during the day. Studies have shown that dogs will watch television, especially when they see things like other animals on the screen.
Dogs are pack animals and when we adjust them to our lifestyle, we separate the pack for several hours of the day while we are at work. DOGTV was designed to give your pets some comfort while you are away.
After hearing about this new station, I had to put it to the test. I put the preview up on my computer in full screen view to see how my own furry friends liked the new station.
I was surprised to see how quickly it did grab their attention! While my parrot prefers to watch MTV, I found my canine companions were quite captivated by the short clips we watched together online.
DOGTV is hoping to be available nationwide over the next year. To preview the station and learn more about it, visit www.dogtv.com
Dana Grove is an animal lover who works with several pet organizations in Brandon.
» communitynews@brandonsun.com
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition May 10, 2012
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