Limited Color Vision in Dogs

[Pat & "Tucker"]

I had an eye exam today and somehow dogs came into the conversation ( imagine that!). I never realized how limited color vision is in a dog,  Because they don't have as many types of cones in the eye as humans,  their vision is limited to yellow, blues and gray or black and white. Thought this was interesting and I must have heard this before but didn't recall.   Now I feel bad about how much the dogs are missing!    I went on the internet to read more and thought this article described it well.

http://www.uwsp.edu/psych/dog/LA/davis2.htm

 

[Deirdre]

Thank you so much for posting this you're saving me a lot of research. We went to see my parents last weekend and my dad asked if Gus still had blue ball #2? Yes, he does. Blue ball #1 is the cabin ball, it's gross, split in 1/2 but it's Gus' blue ball. It's so funny when we get ready to leave Gus runs down to the lake and drops his #1 ball in waits till it sinks, then gets in the car. When we arrive at the lake he runs down and looks for his blue ball, it takes a day or so to find it due to the currents, but he finds it. This goes on every spring and fall (cabin's rented in the summer) when we left in June my parents kept Gus busy and I went down and got #1 ball and threw it out, it was to the point of being a choking hazard. Hopefully when Fall hits #2 will be in a better shape then #1 and I can run down to the lake and sink it.
Then we started talking about the different throw toys that I've gotten for the lake Steve Snell's dummies not one of the 7 family dogs liked the dark green, stayed on the beach all day.
Then my dad said "I thought dogs were color blind." I thought so too. My project this week was to research it, now I don't have to, Thank you. So great to have DK

[Ginny Nightingale]

That is really interesting. I have heard though that some breeds of dogs do see more color than others--Now, I am not sure that that is possible! My two doodles have totally different abilities to see a picture on TV and I thought that may be due to the degree of color vision they have. One will bark at dogs on TV and the other totally ignores the TV screen, so there must be some vision difference that is causing that.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Funny, I have one who barks at any animals on TV and one who doesn't. I don't know if it's a vision thing though.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Who knows what we may be missing? Interesting information. Loved the story about the sinking of the blue balls.

[AndySharon BoomerShaynaMariner]

Very good article. Also remember that dogs sense of smell and hearing are much more acute than ours.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I know this intellectually, but when I was a kid, my dog always chose red things over other colored things - maybe she liked that shade of gray!

[L.M.]

This is so funny that you posted this now...I was watching Rachel Ray yesterday and she had a poodle who could "read," "distinguish spatial relationships", and "distinguish between colors." I was amazed when watching the show but knew it had to be some kind of trick/pattern repeating/ training. LOL now I know I was right! The poodle was asked to "point" to the yellow banana when put next to an orange. It did it, but now I understand why. When the owner explained how she taught the dog to "read" she said she taught the poodle phonics...hmmm....

[Lorraine Bromley]

So we're buying colourful toys for US not THEM!!!

[Pat & "Tucker"]

Exactly!

[sandy b]

Very interesting. Max has 2 toys identical except in color - 1 is orange, 1 is green. They can be near each other and we'll say get green ball and he'll choose the right one. We thought he could tell the difference by color but now maybe he understands the words?