A 24-hour Finnish TV show dedicated entirely to the live progress of a dog and her six newborn puppies is drawing millions of viewers.
As well as a 24-hour webcam, Pentulive (Puppy Live) includes live evening chat sessions with the dogs’ breeder, a podcast and an instant notification service that updates followers on the puppies’ progress – from their birth to weigh-ins and first nail trims – for eight weeks.
This is the sixth season of the hit show by the broadcaster Yle and the latest contribution to the growing Nordic cultural phenomenon of “slow TV”.
The trend started in Norway in 2009 with Bergensbanen, a seven-hour train journey broadcast on NRK , and was followed by SVT’s Den stora älgvandringen (The Great Moose Migration) in Sweden, which features unnarrated glimpses of moose from the north of the country making their annual journey to summer grazing grounds.
Pentulive has long attracted interest from outside Finland, but this year it is also being broadcast in Sweden (under the name Valparna live ). Yle recently announced that it had also sold the format to a broadcaster in the Netherlands.
Ville Alijoki, the editorial manager of Yle’s factual journalism, said: “There’s a certain magic to it, something that people miss when this world is sometimes quite dark.”
On Saturday, the Lagotto Romagnolo puppies – four male and two female – will mark their two-week birthday by being officially named after a vote by viewers. Among the nominations were Martha, Timo, Ronja and Dante.
In mid-December the puppies will leave their mother, Hilkka, and be adopted by new families.
In the first two weeks of their lives, this year’s puppies have attracted millions of views online and on social media. Fans say the puppies offer a relaxing break from work and comfort from stress, loneliness and illness.
Pirjo Koskinen, a science journalist who came up with the Pentulive concept with the aim of educating viewers on the latest dog research and the importance of the first few weeks of a dog’s life, said the show provided “relief from the terrible things happening in the world”.
She said: “Wars, bombing, climate change, habitat loss etc make us anxious and you can escape for at least a moment by watching the canine family.”
Watching the mother and breeder take care of the puppies is like watching “a loop of love and caring”.
“It’s real and we are in the basics of life: the miracle of birth, growth and development,” she added. “It’s so heartwarming to see eyes opening and first clumsy steps and it’s happening right now. That brings us joy, but also many funny moments during eight weeks.”
