My dog watches TV with me and it's driving me insane

[bethanyj3]

TLDR; my dog is EXTREMELY reactive to the TV, to the point where it is driving me insane and I can’t really watch anything for fear of a dog showing up.

Problem: If there is even a 0.5-second shot of a dog during a TV commercial, my dog will jump up and bark (from being completely calm). Dog faintly barking in the background of a TV show? He barks. I have friends and dogsitters who have said they have NEVER seen a dog so intimately watch the TV waiting for something to bark at.

Even on the phone (with no visual cue), he hears someone’s dog barking in the background of a call, or in a video, he will bark.

Context: My dog is an almost 3 yr old mini bernedoodle. As a covid puppy, I didn't expose him to much TV since I was very focused on training and getting him out of the house as much as possible. Now that he's older, he is obsessed with the TV. Overall he is well behaved, not reactive on walks/public, but at home specifically ... he is extremely reactive to TV and sounds in my house. I have read that alert-barking is normal for working breeds, and most don’t really bother me much (mailman, etc), but I just need him to realize the TV IS NOT REAL.

Any tips on how to work on this? A lot of articles I've read say to start at low volume and work your way up, but even at the LOWEST volume, he is barking and I cannot treat because then he associates alert-barking = reward. I've tried telling him 'place' (works but he barks anyway), adding white noise (works but makes it worse when it's silent), etc etc.

This is really starting to affect my mental health, since I can’t watch my favorite TV shows and movies, and when I do my OWN BRAIN is in fear-mode that a dog will appear on screen. I'm literally watching things with headphones and he barks without audio at the sight of a dog on screen.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[simoneblanche]

@bethanyj3 My previous German Shepherd was the same way- went crazy over any dog (or animal) on TV, even with the sound down. Was especially nuts when the MGM lion would roar at the beginning of a movie, lol. We never got her over it. Our new Shepherd could not care less about TV. She’s just not interested. I wish I had some advice but I think it just depends on the dog.

 

[lisamiller138]

@simoneblanche Ya my childhood dog was the same. Would launch himself off the couch and jump on the tv stand and bark like crazy. Almost knocked the tv over a few times. We were never able to train him out of it :/ Only solution I had was to watch tv with the remote in my hand and mute it the second a dog came on

 

[chelsearanee]

@simoneblanche So he likes tv

 

[ricardborias]

@bethanyj3 My dog reacts to tv as well, and she’s the first one that even notices it. So I actually use it for training things I can’t control. For 4th of July I used firework noise and worked my way up slowly.

For this, it’s like working with a dog that’s reactive to other dogs outside, except you can control it.

Use YouTube to find videos of dogs. Keep it quiet at first and teach your dog to ignore it ( leave it) and reward for calm behavior or looking away. You may have to pause the video if it’s too much for them, start with a low volume, or find videos where the dog is further away.

I will also just train her while it’s on, anything to keep her occupied and ignoring it. Eventually they should ignore it. My one warning is don’t do this every time you turn on the TV or else they’ll think it’s time to train you’ll have the opposite problem.