09-05-2025
Moment Dog Recognizes Owner on TV Melts Hearts: 'So Many Head Tilts'
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The moment a dog recognized his owner being shown on television has melted hearts on TikTok.
Ellie Zweifel sat on her couch with a swimming competition playing on the TV. She was watching her partner, Olympian Bobby Finke, compete in a 400-meter race. Their small dog, Phil, joined her on the couch.
Zweifel got distracted by Phil once she realized he was watching TV too, which surprised her because, as she wrote in the caption of her TikTok video, "Phil has terrible vision." Plus, dogs tend to process television and screens differently than humans due to their different vision.
An article from Chewy last month explained that dogs see fewer colors when watching TV due to their limited range compared to humans. They primarily see blues and yellows. Humans will see the screen as a continuous motion, but dogs, on the other hand, perceive the images as a series of flickering pictures. And while humans tend to veg out on the couch, canines typically only watch for short periods.
Even if the screen looked different to Phil, Zweifel was convinced he comprehended who was on the television—his dad. In her May 3 TikTok video posted to the account @elliezweifel1, Phil can be seen sitting on the edge of the couch with his eyes locked onto the screen.
He started tilting his head back-and-forth as he tried processing what he was watching. Phil looked confused and amazed. He wondered if what he saw was truly his owner. He could see and hear his owner, but why wasn't he there physically?
The video's text overlay reads: "Wasn't expecting my dog to recognize his dad through the tv."
Newsweek reached out to @elliezweifel1 for additional information and comment.
While it seemed Phil understood what he was watching, the Chewy article stated that dogs cannot distinguish that what is on the screen is only a picture. This is because animal cognition is not the same as a human's.
TikTok Users React
The video quickly melted people's hearts on TikTok and brought in over 618,700 views as of Friday afternoon. Users couldn't get over the dog's "so many head tilts."
"He like, 'Hold up, wait a minute... I know that guy,'" one user commented.
Another wrote what was going through Phil's mind: "Dad??? How'd you get in that magic box???"
A third user added: "The little head tilts. He is proud of his dad."
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