Dogs Interpreting Visual Representations

[corvus]

We are sitting around tonight watching The Thing. This is entirely because Erik has a small history of alerting us to images on TV we would classify as "unnatural" in some sense and OH wanted to see if The Thing got the same treatment. Sure enough, Erik watched the dog turn itself inside out becoming a monster and leapt off the couch, ran to the TV, and loudly alert barked through most of the scene. He has also alerted at images of a plasticine person with their eyeballs stuck to a mirror, and a grinning, floating, ball-like character from a kid's show.

It got me thinking... Presumably he recognises visual representations of things he knows from real life, like people and dogs. I wonder what criteria he uses to tell him when something known becomes something to alert bark about. I'm guessing the reason he's alerting is because it's still recognisable to him as something he knows, but has taken on a worrying edge with characteristics he has never seen before. He alerts, but settles quickly afterwards. I haven't been able to test it, but I'm imagining he would not alert the second time.

And that got me thinking about the toy dog in the door of the Indian joint down the road that tricks children and dogs, with both of them treating it like a real dog until they learn it isn't. It's obviously a toy, but there must be something about it that is just like a real dog. The first time I saw it I thought for a moment it was a real dog, too. The first time Erik saw it, his hackles went up and he growled at it. He was only 12 weeks old, so I am guessing it hit the same button as people with eyeballs stuck to mirrors. Something that looks real but also looks wrong in some way?

I'd love to hear anyone else's stories about dogs interpreting visual representations of things.

[noisymina]

My son has, on occasions, has brought some corflutes over here. They are those political signs they put up all over the place during elections with the pollies photos on them. A bit larger than life size.

Our Dobe goes absolutely crazy at them - hackles up and all. If we have any in the house, I have to turm them around so she doesn't keep barking at them.

We'd then turn one around at random intervals to see her reaction - just for fun.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

My dog reacts badly to the eye of a camera lens.

She also goes bunta - bark a lot at anything a bit unusual like a woman with a very flowing and brightly coloured sari that waves in the breeze. Or man she hasn't seen for ages - wearing a turban. Or man she sees often - wearing a hat she hasn't seen before. Or an umbrella on the beach.

On tv she likes giraffes.

[Diva]

One of mine climbs up on a chair in the vet consulting room every time she goes in to check out a poster of a cat - its the one with a life size depiction of a cat cross-section showing muscles, skeleton etc.

They all fixate on the cement rabbit in the surgery garden too - the vet nurse noticed and commented that some dogs find it fascinating and others don't seem to notice it at all.

They alerted on the larger than life painted dog figures on the side of a local pet store the first time they saw them but soon decided they weren't worth worrying about, they now get ignored.

The strangest one to me was a bronze dog figurine I have. One dog was very puzzled the first time she saw it, and didn't seem to believe it wasn't a real (tiny) dog until she had sniffed it thoroughly.

Edited October 23, 2010 by Diva

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

Oh yeah, I have to introduce each new calendar dog to my breathing dog otherwise she barks at the calendar. The worst one was the May jumping dog.

[spottychick]

Tango barked at my black wooden cats that I hang over the doorway. It was wierd because he didn't bark at them in my old house where he was with us for 6 months or so but when we moved and I put them up again he went nuts at them. He's over it now tho.

Dylan, the youngster, barks at his reflection in a mirror, tin sculptures of mine workers, unusual street signs (eg the big green "wildlife carer" sign on the house near the river) and any large objects that look out of place on a landscape. He is very alert

None of them seem to care about the tv except if Inspector Rex is on or some other show where animals make noises and then it's the noise that sets them off. Mind you my reception is so bad they probably cant see much on there anyway - I know I can't.

[lanabanana]

Pippi goes nuts at her reflection...but only in windows not in the mirror.

She is not even vaguely interested in her mirror image but when we go for a walk past shops, if she catches a glimpse of her reflection she will go nuts if I dont quickly let her go up and put her nose to the glass LOL. She even knows where all the right windows are and will start pulling to get there.

I am assuming she thinks its a dog on the other side and has to check...I dunno.

The other week though she did it right behind this man and he leapt into the air, it was so funny.

[korbin13]

My son has, on occasions, has brought some corflutes over here. They are those political signs they put up all over the place during elections with the pollies photos on them. A bit larger than life size.

Our Dobe goes absolutely crazy at them - hackles up and all. If we have any in the house, I have to turm them around so she doesn't keep barking at them.

We'd then turn one around at random intervals to see her reaction - just for fun.

We have the real estate signs here with the agents rather large photos on them. I have one who can't get past them quick enough!! The other will give a woof and then move on. They both love people, the photos obviously just aren't in proportion enough for them!

[sandgrubber]

Sprocket, my first Lab, was with me when I lived in State College Pennsylvania -- home of the Nittany Lions (Penn State University's football team). On the corner of the Nittany Inn, there's a larger than life statue of a mountain lion. The first time Sprocket saw this she absolutely freaked out, hair on end, barking like mad. There was a bunch of people around, many of whom laughed heartily at the dog misinterpreting the statue. A credit to Sprocket's intelligence, however, next time we went by the corner she had no reaction to the 'lion'.

[HeavyPaws]

My old kelpie cross used to watch the sheep trials with my grandfather on the telly. As soon as the herd would go off screen she'd dash around the tv to herd them back.

Moon gets put off by children wearing masks, particularly children she knows wearing masks. We took her to Kaylee's preschool at Christmas, all the kids were wearing reindeer masks. She knows all the children and will go to them if you say, for example, "Go to Mitchell!". That day they'd call her and she'd go to them, but look around like she wasn't sure this strange creature was the one who called her.

She was very, very unsure and hid in the book corner for most of the day.

[corvus]

My old kelpie cross used to watch the sheep trials with my grandfather on the telly. As soon as the herd would go off screen she'd dash around the tv to herd them back.

That is quite interesting... There have been a few studies looking at things like that, some with an object disappearing behind another object and one where they used visual representations only (shapes on a touchscreen). I don't know much about it, but from what I understand dogs are sometimes confused by that kind of thing.

It's interesting the kind of things that set them off. It's like they have a sense of what is normal and get upset when something is almost normal more than when something is completely new.

[Simply Grand]

One of mine climbs up on a chair in the vet consulting room every time she goes in to check out a poster of a cat - its the one with a life size depiction of a cat cross-section showing muscles, skeleton etc.

They all fixate on the cement rabbit in the surgery garden too - the vet nurse noticed and commented that some dogs find it fascinating and others don't seem to notice it at all.

They alerted on the larger than life painted dog figures on the side of a local pet store the first time they saw them but soon decided they weren't worth worrying about, they now get ignored.

The strangest one to me was a bronze dog figurine I have. One dog was very puzzled the first time she saw it, and didn't seem to believe it wasn't a real (tiny) dog until she had sniffed it thoroughly.

At Belconnen Animal Hospital? I was justing thinking about that, the first time Saxon saw it he got all defensive and barked at it, even from inside the surgery He was wary of it for a while but ignores it now. Who knows why, it's not like it's big or scary looking?!?

I've mentioned before Saxon getting very growly and alert after seeing swan painted (badly) on an electricity box at the side of the road... And he gets quite worked up at lots of animals on tv, any other dogs, cats and horses especially but any animal really. He used to look around the edge of the tv when he saw the RSPCA ad with all the animals crossing the screen but he seems to have learnt that they won't be there now. He still watches each one cross the screen though. I think it's hilarious

He only reacts to actual animals on tv though, he doesn't seem to react to anything fake or modified... luckily coz I love horror movies but if he freaked out at them I'd have to stop watching them with him around.

[wuffles]

Ava watches all kinds of things on TV. She will even watch cartoons (like the Simpsons) and track the figures across the screen which I find amazing! She also watches sports and follows the 'action' around the screen.