As a scent hound owner, if something doesn't smell, it might as well not exist. He also ignores mirrors. They live in a very different sensory world. I wish I could experience his and he could experience ours.

Also a scent hound owner here, can confirm. For her, the sniffer is The Source of Truth™. When I enter the house, she comes up and gives me a thorough sniffdown, as if she weren't confident in me being me until she confirmed that I smell like me.

Anecdote time, when i lived with my parents on their farm we would regularly have sniffer dogs come to our property because they got lost on a scent trail in the forest with a hunter, this happened every year with different hunters/dogs, i always wondered how they can find something in the forest but not find back to their owner :)

It's not that they can't find their way back. It's just that whatever they're sniffing and tracking is more interesting!

One of mine will see a dog on the tv and start growling. My other two only respond to barking on the tv, then look around like they are being punked.

Not mine. My rotty left a massive smudge on a 32 inch screen when a lion crossed and she decided to attack or at least investigate. Now I have a german shepherd and a much bigger screen. She's not super into TV, but I'll catch her high focused and attentive to the screen from time to time. Just depends whats on.

Dogs are all different. That same rotty would chase flashlight. And that same flashlight is invisible to my german shepherd. Any toy or activity is going to vary dog to dog.

My Rottweiler adores watching TV, same issue though - I’ve got to keep an eye on her or else she’ll go ahead and give the tv a pretty big (and potentially destructive) boop with her nose to check if the animal she just saw on the screen is real.

my dog will ignore screens, usually, but if you pause it with a person on the screen, she will EVENTUALLY (like 30 minutes later) notice there is a person in the living room and start growling. or maybe she just doesn't appreciate Jupiter Ascending