In this New York Times article, author Douglas Quenqua delves into the wisdom of a television channel for dogs. Quenqua describes the channel, called DogTV, which has 24-hour programming scientifically designed to appeal to dogs. The segments include images of a bouncing ball, landscapes, humans playing with other dogs; there are even segments meant to aid in correcting behavioral problems, with a muted vacuum cleaner segment and random, muted door bells.
I think the author missed out on making a comparison between children watching television and dogs watching television because many people regard their dogs as children. There are highly debated pros and cons to having children watch TV: TV can be educational and can distract the child when the parent is busy, but TV should not be a substitute for real playing and learning. The same argument can be made for dogs. The author analyzes each side of the dogs-watching-TV issue, but a comparison to children would have made the argument more understandable to readers who are probably not too experienced in having their dog watch TV.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/25/should-your-dog-be-watching-tv/
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