New innovations in science from November 2022, recently claim that dogs have the ability to play video games! I guess if they can use talking buttons, and have dog TV, why not have video games for dogs too?!
I was curious, what would a dog video game look like? And how exactly would the dog interact to play the game? This short video answered my questions about the video games, but also left me with more questions. See what you think.
My Reaction To The Video
After watching the video, I was really feeling unconvinced watching the first few dogs. To me, it seems like they were bribed to tap the screen, enticed by treats. So are they really “learning” the game? Are they really enjoying it? Or are they simply becoming classically conditioned to mimic a human respond we want them to achieve? The last dog in the video was playing impressively, he was confident and had more accurate gestures when playing, but why did he keep putting his head down after every screen tap? Was he getting fed treats just out of camera range? Or was it his way of releasing his focus and regrouping himself for the next round? What do you think?
What The Researches Hope Dog Video Games Will Achieve
According to JioPaw, the video games were developed as a preventive measure to protect dog’s brains from dementia as they age. I’m all for dog healthcare innovation. I like the idea of fun video games not only being entertaining but also promoting health. But as with dog talking buttons how much of this is truly the dog being autonomous versus human conditioning a response they want through trained behavior. Only time will tell. The more research is done, the more experimentation that occurs the more answers will be discovered. Sometimes, it’s not the first intention of the research that matters but the subtle, unintentional findings that mean the most. So perhaps dogs ability to play video games will have other benefits that we have yet to explore.
Other Dog Video Game Articles: