Can Dogs Differentiate Colors? Or Are They Color Blind?

Dogs can’t see colors has been a well-known fact for decades. Dogs are believed to be colorblind, meaning they can only see white, gray, and black. Is this “fact” supported by science and research? Dogs see more than we thought. What do our furry friends see? We will find out. We will also find out if dogs can tell the difference between different colors like humans.

Dogs perceive the world differently to humans. But how different do they see it? You will be able to better understand your dog’s worldview if you understand it.

Signs That Dogs Can See Color

In the past few decades, there has been a lot of research into how dogs perceive the world. The research revealed that dogs can see many of the same colors as humans. This is why many people don’t realize how different dogs see the world. It may be worth taking the time to observe how your dog reacts when you give it toys or other objects. This will help you to see how they see the world.

Your dog may prefer toys that are yellow or blue. This is because dogs can only see yellow and blue shades, not greens, reds, and oranges. You will likely notice that your dog prefers the yellow toy even though they are identical. This is because your dog perceives toys differently. Red will appear brighter than yellow, and red will almost be brown.

It makes sense that your dog loves colors it can see better than others. What would you do if you lost a ball in the grass while you were playing? It’s unlikely, and it’s not something dogs enjoy doing.

History of Dogs Seeing Colors

The founder of National Dog Week, Will Judy, told the world that dogs have poor vision in the 1930s. Part of his reasoning for the poor vision was that he believed dogs could only see in varying highlights of blacks and gray. Plus, he thought that dogs could only see the general outline of the shapes of objects. While Judy was incorrect in his assumption, that didn’t keep the world from believing it.

Another group of scientists developed the theory in the 1960s that primates were the only ones capable of seeing color, just like humans. Although there was no scientific evidence to support the theory, it wasn’t dismissed as quickly as one might think. Further research supported the claim that dogs can’t see color. In the following decades, very little research was done on the sight of dogs.

A group of Russian scientists carried out an experiment in 2013 to disprove the previous theories. They found that dogs can see certain colors but not all. Researchers concluded that dogs can only see shades of yellow and blue. However, they cannot see red and green. Researchers also discovered that dogs are able to distinguish objects and select them from a list.

Science Behind How Dogs See Colors

Part of the reason that people so quickly believed that dogs couldn’t see any colors was that we didn’t have a way to study their eyes. Now, we can look at the structure of a dog’s eyes to see how they differ from the structure of our eyes.

Dogs have rods and cones just like humans. However, dogs are unique. Dogs have more rods in their eyes than humans so they can see better in low-light situations. Dogs only have two cones while humans have three. These cones enable us to see colors. Dogs lack the cones that permit red and green vision. Dogs can only see certain colors.

Dogs and Color Vision

Unfortunately, you can’t just train your dogs to see in all colors, because biology prevents that from happening. You can, however, train your dog to differentiate between things with color and things without color. While this isn’t a particularly useless skill for your dog to have, you could have them sort laundry or their toys into different groups.

To do it, Wag! Wag! Place all items that have color in two baskets. Then, ask your dog to place them one after the other.

However, it is crucial that you are able to understand the limitations of your dog. You can’t expect your dog to be able to tell the difference between red or green, so don’t try to put them in different baskets. This will only frustrate both you and your dog. Instead, be realistic and teach your dog to distinguish between white and colored items.

You can connect better with your dog by understanding how they see the world. This article will give you an insight into the unique way your dog sees the world. While most people won’t be able to understand their pet’s vision of the world, it can help them. Science has allowed us to understand more about how dogs see the world and how they think over the past decade.