An English Bulldog puppy’s adorable bedtime routine has been showcased in a sweet video shared to TikTok.
Valentino or Tino as Melisa Ordonez from Denver likes to call him, has only been a part of the family for a matter of months but he’s already proving himself to be a small puppy with a big personality.
Tino arrived in sad circumstances.
“We lost our English Bulldog at age 10 last October to cancer,” Ordonez told Newsweek. “We had purchased her for my son when he was diagnosed with a neurological condition that required him to have brain surgery and he was homeschooled for a year, so that was his best friend.”
This past Valentine’s Day, Ordonez decided to surprise her son, who is now 24, with a new English Bulldog puppy. That’s where Tino came in.
Taking on a puppy is a big commitment and even though Ordonez and her family have previous experience, Tino is challenging in all the ways they expected him to be. “He’s still a puppy so he likes to sleep and when he’s awake, he likes to destroy everything in his path,” Ordonez said.
Thankfully, Ordonez has hit upon a way of calming him down at night and ensuring he gets all of his beauty sleep: Bluey. “Tino loves watching Bluey. It’s the only thing that calms him down at night,” she said.
Proof of this can be found in the video Ordonez posted to TikTok, which has over 45,000 views, under the handle @mothermelisa, showing Tino gently drifting off in front of a laptop playing an episode of the popular animated kids TV show.
“Awww,” one TikTok user commented, with another agreeing that the footage is “so cute.”
“He watches it every night and during the day when we want him to settle down, we will turn it on,” Ordonez said. “As soon as he hears the theme music, he automatically stops what he’s doing to watch.”
TikTok/mothermelisa.
Tino’s unexpected appreciation for Bluey was discovered completely by chance.
“My sister brought my niece to my house to meet our new puppy and she wanted to watch Bluey,” Ordonez said. “Once we turned it on, we noticed how immediately stopped what he was doing and turned to watch it.”
When Tino was acting up later that day, Ordonez decided to see if Bluey had the same effect. It did, with the English Bulldog pup settling in to watch the rest of the episode.
Bluey was the most-watched TV show in the U.S. in 2024, with over 35 billion minutes watched last year alone. Ordonez suspects the makers of the show might already be well aware of the effect it is having on animal viewers.
“I heard that the makers of Bluey actually created it with colors that dogs can see so that they will be able to watch,” she said.
It’s a theory some experts appear to agree with. Amanda Farah, national training & behavior coordinator for Best Friends Animal Society, told People that dogs can “discriminate between blue and yellow,” which are two of the main colors used in Bluey. “We do see some evidence that when we present them with toys or videos in those colors that they seem really drawn to them,” she said.
The frenetic nature of what plays out on the screen is also an important consideration. “Dogs will just tune out completely from the video if there’s not movement involved,” Farah said. “When I watch Bluey, all I see is the movement. It’s high-contrast movement, so the lines are sharp and crisp, which probably helps because dog’s visual acuity is not as sharp as ours.”
The fact it is short, features an array of unusual noises or accents and centers on dogs are also key considerations. There’s also what Farah notes as the “predictable movement” each of the characters exhibit on the show. These patterns can be “very soothing” to a canine and may be just one of the many factors that makes Bluey a must-watch for Tino and other dogs like him.