Dog Addicted to TV

Wow, Emma watches TV, and I thought she was weird, but that's just crazy.....

Good luck, Mic.

The TV thing itself seems to be sound related, not visual, because he said the dog came running from the yard when he turned it on, which Im sure he didnt see it, but heard it... then again if its visible from the yard he may have caught a glimpse and came running.  Then the animal ON the TV I would think is a visual thing because most animals are on while someone is talking not with its own animal sound.

Not being able to use corrections seems to be your problem here, so I hope they realize how much that limits your ability to help them... I dont understand it, it was enough of a problem to call you - but not enough to use corrections..?  Anway, this is very interesting.

What does he do in the crate?  Maybe put the crate in the room with the TV and let him go crazy... if he calms down after however long then give him a treat and praise.  Seems like he would wear himself out in there over it and eventually quit.  Maybe if you did this for a long time every day the TV would become something hes used to and not such a big deal...?

If it's sound related, maybe the people in the house could use earphones for awhile or turn the volume waaay down and bring up the *closed captioning* and see what happens.  OMG  [] I can see myself putting a little tiny TV in the bathroom and just staying in there.

Joyce

fuzzy - if I did that my SO would take a pillow and sleep in the bath.  And we have only one bathroom.
 
This is interesting, though.  One question - did the owners ever leave the TV on when leaving him alone as a young puppy, to keep him company? 
 
Kate

Hi Mic,
 
We've got a case of this going on here, but not as extreme as you describe.  Our little adoptee, 6 year old Teddy, is very reactive with the TV.  When we adopted him his previous owners said, "Oh, he loves TV."  They did not say, "clear the decks if a critter of any variety arrives on the screen because all heck breaks loose."  Not that it would make a difference. 
 
When we got Teddy home, if any living creature other than a human showed up on the TV screen, he would start barking, snarling, growling, drooling, breathing heavily, work himself into a terrible lather.  He'd be on the couch and you'd swear he was in a deep sleep, but if a dog showed up on the screen he was on it.  He is very dog aggressive to dogs outside the home, is that also true of the dog you are treating? 
 
On the TV reaction, here's what we've been doing, and it is helping.  If he is in the room and the TV is on, one of us is seated very closely to him (he's allowed on the furniture, so that makes it easy to be close to him).  The second he starts to react, we give him the sharp "Shhh" and gently lay his head back down on the couch and repeat "Shhh" or "UH!"  When he totally relaxes, he is praised.  We've been doing this every time he reacts, after a few evenings of this, I was amazed at how many times a critter appears on the screen.  The TV cannot be on in the room he is in unless a human is with him to correct him, so that he "gets" that this is simply unacceptable behavior in this household and can't get away with it just because we aren't there.  This correction method has definitely been helping, as he's reacting less and less as he's learned that it really displeases us.  We've had to repeat this cycle a million times so that he now knows that when he reacts he gets the "Uh" treatment and when he calms he gets praised. 
 
Hope this helps, although it definitely sounds like your client's case is a bit more involved than what we've got going on here.  I do have a behaviorist coming to the house this week to help me with his dog aggression issues. That's one area I haven't been able to make any progress on. 
 

That's really cool agilebasengi - turn down the brightness until it's black to see if it the sound or the picture.  Then mute and try upping the brightness until you hit the stimulation level.

Other possibilities if you can't find a specific stimuli is hypersensitivity to the electromagnetic field.

All my books are packed but I did find The Dog Who Loved Too Much.  Oh, no, never mind, that's The Difficult Child - funny that they look like, never noticed before.

Um, I want to say he recommended typically reducing protein below 16, maybe even 14 per cent.  Now, I would definitely do some research on that today, because years ago when I first read that, a typical ration was between 16 and 20 per cent (can you believe it?).  So I don't know whether this protocol was relative or an objective standard. And he actually prefered a natural diet (not low protein).  So I would definitely try to get some updated info on this.

Now that is one weird behavior. I'm glad my dog doesn't have go through that when watching tv. Good luck with him!

I think I now have a plan of action.  I will let you all know how it goes.  Thanks for the help.
 
Wish me luck!

Now Im curious as to what you cam up with!  Good luck!