How Do Dogs See Color
In the eyes of a dog the world is in white and in various shades of grey. It was once believed that dogs do not have the ability to see colors. Dogs are highly valued for their ultrasensitive senses. Dogs are renowned for being outstanding guard dogs because of their very sensitive scenting and hearing abilities. Sighthounds are breeds highly valued for their excellent vision. One of the advantages of dogs over humans is the ability to see well in the dark . As long as a dog is on guarding duty, people can sleep soundly at night.
Nature has endowed our furry friends with very sensitive senses but the ability to see colors in the same way humans can was left out. Dogs can see color but the colors they can distinguish are fewer than what humans can see. Canine vision was studied in the University of California and it was proven that although a dog’s capability to see colors is not as detailed as human’s, dogs can indeed see colors. Yes, Fido cannot appreciate the new bright red ball as to the eyes of the dog the new toy would appear to be a hard to see black or dark brownish gray ball.
Humans and dogs are very similar in genetics. The cone photoreceptors that catch light and control color sensitivity in human eyes are found in dog’s eyes too. A dog’s eye only has two cone photoreceptors while humans have three. The three cones in the central part of the human retina give humans 100% full range vision while the two cone types in a dog’s eye deliver only about 20 % range of color vision. This makes the dog’s vision about six times less inferior than human vision.
In the eyes of Fido the rainbow colors would be blue, light blue, grey, light yellow, brownish yellow and dark grey instead of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. This means that in the eyes of a dog, the world is basically colored in blue, grey and yellow. Surprisingly, dogs have the ability to see the subtle differences in the shades of blues and violets.
Humans do not have this ability because the human eyes have a yellow pigmentation that reduces the sensitivity of the eye to blue and violet lights by blocking the short wavelengths. The absence of the yellow pigmentation in the dogs eyes enables our four legged friend’s eyes to be more sensitive in identifying the different shades of violets and blues.
Find out more about how dogs see color and dog first aid at Sarah’s Dogs.
