Domestic dogs can perceive images on television similarly to the way we do, and they are intelligent enough to recognize onscreen images of animals as they would in real life — even animals they’ve never seen before — and to recognize TV dog sounds, like barking.

However, there are some differences between ourselves and man’s best friend — for one, dogs’ eyes register images more quickly than do ours. So older television sets, which show fewer frames per second than modern televisions, would appear to a dog to be flickering like a “1920s movie,” said Nicholas Dodman, a veterinary behaviorist at Tufts University, in Massachusetts.

Dogs also have dichromatic vision, which means they see a range of two primary colors, yellow and blue.

DogTV, an HDTV cable channel designed for dogs, interests canines because HDTV has a much higher number of frames per second and is specially colored to accommodate dogs’ dichromatic vision, said Dodman, who is the channel’s chief scientist.

DogTV has modes for relaxation, which shows images like dogs chilling out in a grassy field; stimulation, which depicts scenes like dogs surfing in southern California; and exposure, which shows things like a dog reacting to a ringing doorbell and obeying commands to acclimate them to such situations at home.

How dogs react to TV—whether it’s running around, barking excitedly, or just ignoring it—may come down to personality or breed.

Hearing a barking dog on the set often gets TV-watching dogs excited. Some dogs not only bark at animals on the screen, but also run behind the TV looking for them.

Others “have been desensitized to television. When they see a dog [on TV], they [may] think, ‘Those guys just hang out on the television. They never actually walk around,’” Dodman said.

Hounds, which are driven by smell, aren’t as interested in visuals, but herding breeds, such as terriers, may be more stimulated by moving objects they see on the small screen.

家犬和我们一样，看得懂电视上的图像。它们还聪明到能辩得出画面上的动物—— 无论他们是否见过 —— 它们还能辨认出电视里传来的犬吠声。

但是，我们人类和狗还是有些不同点。其中之一就是，狗的识别图像的速度要比我们快许多。因此，要是一台老式电视放在狗狗面前，由于老电视每秒的帧数比现代电视要少，它们会觉得自己在看上世纪20年代的老默片电影，马萨诸塞州塔夫斯大学的动物行为学家尼古拉斯·杜曼说。

狗的视觉只有蓝黄双色，因此它们的眼中是两种基色的世界。

作为DogTV（狗狗频道）的首席科学家，杜曼表示，汪星人爱看这个高清有线频道是因为这个频道每秒帧数更多，而且颜色适应狗狗的双色视觉。

狗狗频道提供了多样的节目：有放松的，比如狗狗在草地上散步、有狗狗在南加州冲浪的刺激性节目，还有狗狗听到门铃做出反应、听从指令等帮助它们适应家庭生活的教育节目。

狗对电视的反应也有可能“因狗而异”。到底是兴奋地到处跑、大声叫唤，还是不理不睬，大致可归因为狗狗的性格和品种不同。

听到电视上传来犬吠声，看电视的狗狗都会情难自控。有些不仅会在荧幕前试图与画面上的动物“对话”，还会绕到电视后面去找。有一些则已经对电视不再敏感，看到电视上的小伙伴，杜曼说，这些汪星人就会想：“这些家伙只是电视上闲逛，它们不会走出来。”

像猎犬那样嗅觉灵敏的狗狗，在视觉上的兴趣不会很大；但是像梗犬那样的牧羊犬，就更易对屏幕上运动物体的作出反应。

    Words to Learn 相关词汇

   【刺激】cìjī stimulation causing excitement or stimulating interest

    【使适应】shǐ shìyìng acclimate accustom to a new environment or situation, adapt