cool story!
i always heard that dogs cannot 'see' t.v. like we do.
but, i had a pitbull that,whenever an animal show would come on t.v., he would get all excited and lick the screen!!!
he had a very long tongue(i had a few misfortunes of having it in my mouth when he gave me kisses!

eeewwww!!!) and he would lick the whole
screen! i would literally need a scouring pad to scrub off his dried saliva!
he seen the animals though!
also,i heard that in the movie 'the exorcist' they used the sound of bees subliminally in the back ground to make the veiwers 'uneasy' while they
watched. humans have an inborn fear of bees is the theory.
not sure if this is true,but maybe they used a similar method in 2001!
just a thought.