The fact that dogs have better flicker perception than humans is consistent with the data that suggests that they have better motion perception ability than people. It also answers a commonly asked question as to why the majority of dogs don't seem to be interested in the images on the television-even when those images are of dogs. The image on a standard television screen is updated and redrawn 60 times per second. Since this is above a human's flicker resolution ability of 55 Hz, the image appears continuous and the gradually changing images give us the illusion that it is continuous. Because dogs can resolve flickers at 75 Hz, a TV screen probably appears to be rapidly flickering to dogs. This rapid flicker will make the images appear to be less real, and thus many dogs do not direct much attention to it. Even so, it is true that some dogs ignore the apparent flickering of the television and seem to respond to dogs and other interesting images on the TV screen if they are interesting enough. However, changes in technology are beginning to change the number of dogs that watch TV. High-resolution digital screens are refreshed at a much higher rate so even for dogs there is less flicker, and we are getting more reports of pet dogs who are very interested when various nature shows containing images of animals moving.

Still, people are sometimes surprised to find that although their dog responds when there is a dog on the screen, or perhaps some other animal running swiftly, it does not respond to cartoon images of dogs. This really is a testimony to how good a dog's ability is to see and accurately interpret moving images. When a dog sees a cartoon canine he recognizes that it is moving, but the movements of an animated figure are not a precise rendering of the pattern of movements of a live animal. Therefore he sees something moving, but it is not a dog or any other real animal of interest.