Having a dog, I’ve always wondered what his perspective of the world was. I’ve always been told from a very young age that dogs are colorblind and can only see black and white. As it turns out, the fact that dogs can see in only black and white is actually a myth.
When people say that dogs are colorblind, they automatically think that dogs can only see in black and white. This is a huge misinterpretation. Contrary to popular belief, Dogs do see colors, but not like people do.
Cones are cells in the eye that react to color. Humans with normal vision have three distinct cones in the retina, while dogs only have two. To be more specific, normal vision of humans have red, green and blue color sensitive cones cells, and dogs have cones that only respond blue and yellow light.
Humans are considered colorblind when they only have two of the three cones. The colorblind person can still see colors, but cannot see as vibrant of colors as people with normal vision. From my understanding, dogs see the same level of vividness as a person who is colorblind.
Jay Neitz, a color vision researcher at the University of Washington, explored dogs’ color vision. In a series of trials, the k-9s were exposed to three different light panels. One of the panels was a distinct color and the other two panels were of identical colors. In the experiment, the dogs had to identify the different color and press that panel. If the dog was right, he received a treat.
After this experiment, Neitz confirmed that dogs do not just see black and white, but they do see less colors than normal human vision. To put it simply, dogs see variations of just blue, yellow and gray. Thus, dogs do not see red, green, or any variations of those colors. The dog can only see those colors as black or gray.
However, if you think about it, the results of this experiment could have definitely be due to chance. Also, after a couple of trials, the dogs may have figured out which panel they needed to press in order to receive a treat. For instance, the dogs could have detected that pressing the left panel will give them a treat, or maybe the right, or middle one.
But, since this is some evidence that dogs are colorblind, take that into account when buying toys for your dog. If your dog has ever had trouble finding a red toy in the green grass, your dog is not stupid, he’s just having trouble distinguishing the gray grass from the gray toy.
http://www.colourblindawareness.org/colour-blindness/types-of-colour-blindness/
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/200810/can-dogs-see-colors
Hi Kathleen,
I, too, thought until recently that dogs could only see in black and white, and that’s why I wrote this post. I believe the reason why people started thinking dogs see in black and white is because that is what sometimes is associated with the world “colorblind.” The word itself is quite misleading.
This is a very interesting post! I was always told that dogs saw in black and white and I never thought much of it. I agree that the results of the study could be due to chance but it’s still an interesting thought, and I wonder why people ever started saying that dogs only see black and white.