Why are dogs colorblind?
How Dogs See Color How do dogs see color? Are they color blind as many believe? The following article examines how dogs interpret brightness, shape, contrast and color. By Dana K. Vaughan, Ph.D., Dept. of Biology, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh email: Vaughan@uwosh.edu Vision is just one of several senses that dogs use to scan their world for important information. Any visual scene has multiple aspects to which dogs’ brains are sensitive: brightness, shape, contrast, and motion are a few of these. But what about color? Many authorities have stated that “dogs are colorblind”, with the implication that dogs perceive only black, white, and shades of grey. In fact, this was not known for certain, but became “folklore”. Then, in the late 1980s, a definitive set of experiments was done at the University of California, Santa Barb
Dogs aren’t colorblind, but they do see colors differently than we do. Dogs don’t seem to be able to see reds and greens very well, so their world probably seems to be in shades of yellow and blue. For a comparison of how you and a dog see colors, go to this web site: http://www.uwsp.edu/acad/psych/dog/dvision.htm Press the link for “Dr. Ps training site”, then “General Topics”, then “Vision”. The first article on acuity and color vision has the picture you should look at, so you’ll see what I’m talking about. Dogs don’t see fine details as well as humans, either. We usually see 20/20 or a little better, but dogs see about 20/80. That’s four times blurrier! Dogs do see better at night, though, and they also see moving things better than we do. That may explain why your dog can spot the moving ball that you throw in the woods. He can tell exactly where it stopped moving. This would come in handy for a dog in the
