How to Have a Meaningful Video Chat … With Your Dog

Has the pandemic separated you from your four-legged friend? These tips will help you stay in touch.
a dog resting it's head on a laptop
Photograph: Getty Images 

In April of last year, Catherine H. Saunders shared a video of her husband and her dog that went viral. The short clip showed her 8-year-old Briard and her husband, a fellow in critical care living in the basement during the early days of the pandemic, sharing dinner over FaceTime. Quarantine, social distancing, and travel restrictions under Covid-19 have meant that many people have been separated—not only from friends and family—but from their loyal four-legged pals, their dogs.

As the pandemic continues, the internet is increasingly filled with photos of confused puppies, heads cocked, trying to make sense of foreign technology. Looking at our dogs (or even other people’s dogs) fills us with joy, but what do dogs get out of the experience? There are a lot of unanswered questions: How well can dogs understand us when we video-call? How can we make the experience more meaningful for all parties involved? Is it even possible?

Experts say the science on how dogs process technology is limited, because canine behavior and neurology are generally understudied fields in the world of animal science. Without conclusive data, Oskar Juhlin—a professor at Stockholm University in the Department of Computing and Systems Sciences—says anecdotal evidence from individuals is the most reliable sources on hand. “A lot of dog owners have experience and ideas about this, so the best thing to do is collect this knowledge,” he recommends.

As we attempt to answer these questions, here are a few tips and educated guesses from dog lovers of all kinds—researchers, behaviorists, and humans away from home—to better communicate with your dogs over video.

The Benefits of Video-Calling Your Pets

From Singapore, Meghana Sridhar FaceTimes with her family dogs, Coffee and Bro, in India almost daily, while her mother facilitates. She’s had this routine for almost six years, and she says calling her dogs helps her feel like she’s close to home. She believes it helps them remember her voice and thinks they also enjoy the experience. “They will bark at the phone with happiness sometimes,” she observes.

Can it be that they are really happy to hear from her?

Melody Jackson, an associate professor in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, has worked with dogs since 1994 when she became involved at Companions for Independence—one of the leading providers of service dogs in the United States. She says there is evidence to suggest it may be beneficial for both the owner and the dog to stay in touch virtually. While there is no conclusive data to determine whether dogs are reacting to your image or your voice, she points to research showing that the same area of a dog’s brain associated with human attachment, or “love,” is activated when seeing an image of its owners.

Sabrina Karl—a biologist and dog trainer based in Austria—is a bit more skeptical. While she acknowledges that a dog can be trained to enjoy such a call, she worries there will also be people who use it as a substitute for real company. “Dogs are way more social than other animals, and they really suffer when they are alone,” she says.

Focus on Audio Quality

Although a dog’s ability to comprehend images on a screen is unknown, 2016 research by Brazilian TV presenter Alexandre Rossi supports the idea that dogs can understand verbal cues given via video chat when trained to do so. In footage of the experiments, Rossi’s dog Estopinha listens to his commands to perform tricks in exchange for treats that come out of a dispenser.

While most dog owners are unsure whether their dogs recognize them onscreen, they feel certain that the dogs are reacting to their voice. Kendal Shepherd, an animal behaviorist and author of several books on understanding dogs, agrees that the weight of the experience relies heavily on audio. Just as with humans, a strong internet connection to avoid lags and a clear but not too loud volume setting are crucial to video-chatting smoothly. “The sound must be very, very real,” she says.

When it comes to the content of the conversation, she also advises against pouring your heart out in long, drawn-out sessions. To avoid stressing your dog out, she recommends being mindful of the tone of your voice and using words instead of sentences—tactics that should be applied in person as well. “The whole communication will tell the dogs something about our emotions—whether we are happy, sad, angry, upset or that there is something wrong with us. I think dogs know an awful lot more than we think,” she says.

Stay Still and Keep It Short

While your dog may stare at the screen when a facilitator holds up a phone, Jackson says it’s unlikely they would recognize their owner on a tiny cell phone screen. It's possible that larger screens that show you as nearly life-sized may enable your dog to recognize you, but she points to research by Stanley Coren suggesting dogs cannot understand moving images on screens at all.

“Dogs can see about 25 percent faster than we can, and they notice the flickering, which can be confusing. It might be better for the dog to just see a still picture of you rather than video,” she says.

Sitting your dog in front of a screen for a long period of time may prove impossible too. The experts we spoke to agree that dogs can be easily distracted. But even if yours is inclined to sit and stare at you on a phone, it’s best to keep the discussion short—especially at first. The experience can actually be disappointing to your dog, as it could mistake your voice for a sign that you will soon be home. Jackson recommends keeping the conversation under two minutes.

“In the real world, dogs are always looking for information. They are looking for it by sight, hearing, and smell, and they need these things to be congruent,” Shepherd says.

Choose a Good Host for the Call

Karl says the facilitator needs to be able to tell whether your dog is enjoying the call or if there are signs of stress that may not be visible to you over a video screen. If there is a good facilitator, who maybe even hands out treats, there is a higher likelihood of the call going well, she predicts.

For Keshia Badalge, that facilitator was her grandmother. Although she is now reunited with her dog, she says she video-chatted with her golden retriever Shandi in Singapore for eight years while she lived in the United States. At the beginning of every call, her grandmother would call out “jie jie” (meaning sister in Chinese), as if Badalge had just arrived home, and Shandi would come running over.

Badalge believes the role of the facilitator was critical to making communication possible. “There needs to be a warm middle person—someone willing to interpret by animating and expressing things on behalf of us,” she says. For instance, if Badalge was curious about Shandi’s most recent trip to the vet, her grandmother would hold Shandi and say something like, “Show jie jie pain pain.”

“I even have an email address for her that I would write to, but we have to go through someone else, because Shandi doesn’t have her own phone,” Keshia explains.

Embrace Your Inner Scientist

Callan Burgess started documenting his video-chatting adventures on Instagram (@facetimewithdogs) last year with his brother’s dog, Missy, who seemed to have a particular interest in screens. “Nature documentaries, and particularly David Attenborough, are very exciting for her, and one day I wanted to see if she recognized me through the phone,” he says.

Burgess says, “Recognizing what your dog finds interesting after trying out a few things is important.”

Dogs will differ in their capacities to pay attention to screens and sounds, and they will have likes and dislikes just like humans, but Shepherd says it is possible to create positive associations with your call that might make it a more enjoyable experience for your dog. The facilitator of the call, for instance, could take out a piece of your clothing when you ring, so your dog can associate the scent of you to the sound of the ring. You can also arrange for your dog to get a treat or have mealtime when you call.

The stronger the association to food (or another positive experience), the more your dog can enjoy the call, she says.

Consider New Dog Tech

Today, pet owners may choose from a wide range of pet cameras that do everything from alerting you when your dog barks to dispensing treats at your approval, and the technology in this field is changing rapidly.

Jackson, who also leads a group called the FIDO project connecting service dogs to wearable technology, even helped design a vest that allows dogs to press buttons to express different messages. More recently, a company named Petpuls developed an AI-powered dog collar in conjunction with South Korea’s Seoul National University that analyzes your dog’s barks to tell you whether it is happy, anxious, angry, sad, or relaxed. Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, a postdoctoral researcher at Aalto University, has even written about what a “dog internet” (a system that connects dogs to other dogs) would look like.

Hirskyj-Douglas says the design and usage of remote video call systems for animals needs to be approached carefully. Instead of asking what dogs can do for us, she says it’s important to also consider: What does a dog want out of a new technology? Could it be video smell for instance? “In the future, I hope that dogs can take more control of their lives, and video calls, and decide these things,” she says.