{"id":7738,"date":"2022-04-02T15:20:41","date_gmt":"2022-04-02T20:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=7738"},"modified":"2022-04-06T15:20:52","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T20:20:52","slug":"uw-madison-canine-tv-preferences-could-lead-to-answers-in-protecting-dogs-eyesight","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uw-madison-canine-tv-preferences-could-lead-to-answers-in-protecting-dogs-eyesight\/","title":{"rendered":"UW-Madison: Canine TV preferences could lead to answers in protecting dogs\u2019 eyesight"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo
Freya Mowat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Television: It\u2019s not just for people anymore.<\/p>\n

These days, programming created specifically for dogs is more frequently popping up on our screens. YouTube offers a nearly endless supply of dog-centered videos, and there\u2019s a growing number of television and streaming channels promising 24\/7 content to keep pups entertained or even alleviate stress or separation anxiety while owners are away.<\/p>\n

But very little is actually understood about how dogs engage with this kind of programming, and what kind of videos most appeal to them.<\/p>\n

Now,\u00a0a new citizen-science study<\/a> led by a University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison professor is asking dog owners to help shed some light on these questions. It\u2019s no trivial business, as the results could lay the groundwork for developing better ways of assessing vision in dogs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overarching goal in this study is to figure out what dogs like to watch on television,\u201d says\u00a0Freya Mowat<\/a>, a veterinary clinician-scientist. \u201cThis is interesting from a dog behavior standpoint, but as dog vision researchers, we also want to develop engaging methods to test dog vision in either the home or clinic, which we currently just do not have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mowat, an assistant professor at the UW School of Veterinary Medicine\u2019s Department of Surgical Sciences and the School of Medicine and Public Health\u2019s Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, says previous efforts to develop an eye test for dogs have resulted in more than a few \u201cepic fails.\u201d Trying to adapt human vision tests for dogs has proved challenging, at best, or required too much training to be viable.<\/p>\n

But Mowat believes videos could potentially be the key to holding a dog\u2019s attention long enough to gather and assess critical information about visual function. The trick is determining the type of content that\u2019s most engaging and appealing to dogs.<\/p>\n

To better understand what dogs might be most attracted to on screen, Mowat is seeking individuals from around the globe, and their canine companions, to participate in a \u201cDog TV\u201d survey. The unique questionnaire asks people to provide information on their dog\u2019s screen-viewing habits, as well as information about the dog\u2019s age, sex, breed, and where they live.<\/p>\n

Participants can also take the optional step of showing their pooch four short videos of subjects potentially of interest to dogs, such as objects and other animals. People will then rate their dog\u2019s interest in each video and how closely the dog tracked the moving objects in the videos.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe intend for this to be a fun activity for both dogs and their people,\u201d Mowat says. \u201cAnd we\u2019d really love to get thousands of responses from individuals across the world, so we can better understand if dogs in Wisconsin like the same kind of videos as dogs in New York or Brazil or any other location.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previous efforts to develop an eye test for dogs have resulted in more than a few epic fails. Trying to adapt human vision tests for dogs has proved challenging.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ultimately, Mowat says the study could also help answer a question of interest to all dog owners: How do we help our four-legged friends age gracefully?<\/p>\n

\u201cAs they get older, do dogs need things like brighter lighting in their environment to prevent them from tripping down the stairs in the middle of the night, or other visual cues to help them locate things? These are questions we genuinely don\u2019t know the answers to,\u201d Mowat says. \u201cWe do know that canine retinal function does decline with age and can decline quite significantly. So it\u2019s more than likely that visual perception does change, but what that actually means from a lifestyle standpoint is the missing piece of the puzzle.\u201d<\/p>\n

A future goal, says Mowat, is to compare how a dog\u2019s vision ages compared with the human or humans they share a home with.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter all, a dog has a much shorter lifespan than their owner, and so if there are emerging environmental or lifestyle factors that influence visual aging, it might well show up in our dogs decades before it shows up in us,\u201d Mowat explains. \u201cOur dogs could be our sentinels \u2014 the canine in the proverbial coal mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ready to take part and help advance vision research for our canine companions?\u00a0Click here to answer the questionnaire<\/a>, which will take approximately 10 to 20 minutes. There is no anticipated risk to study participants or their dogs.<\/p>\n

\n

By\u00a0Chris Malina<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/news.wisc.edu\/canine-tv-preferences-could-lead-to-answers-in-protecting-dogs-eyesight\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Television: It\u2019s not just for people anymore. These days, programming created specifically for dogs is more frequently popping up on our screens. YouTube offers a nearly endless supply of dog-centered videos, and there\u2019s a growing number of television and streaming channels promising 24\/7 content to keep pups entertained or even alleviate stress or separation anxiety […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":7743,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[103],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-7738","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-madison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/7738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=7738"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=7738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}