Does your doodle have a favorite color?

[Jennifer Tramell]

I have heard that dogs are color blind - I'm not sure I believe it. My Webster seems to have a passion for pink. When he is excited, affectionate, or wants attention, he will nibble/groom the person he is with. He has done this for months but we noticed recently that he could hardly control himself from nibbling on my pink coat. Several days later, my daughter was wearing a coat and he went to her and started nibbling on her. He hadn't done this to her prior but this was a coat that she hadn't worn before and it was pink. For Christmas I got a new throw blanket and I was cuddled up under the blanket on the couch. Webster came over and started nibbling the blanket and he'd never done it to a blanket before. Guess what color the blanket is? Yup, pink. Now we all have different colored coats and blankets but Webster seems particularly drawn to pink. Anyone else notice a preferred color for your dogs?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Dogs aren't colorblind, but the range of colors they can see is much more limited than ours. Here's a fairly good explanation from among many you can find on-line:

"Dogs are not colorblind in the sense that they see more than just black, white, and gray. However, the color range they perceive is limited compared to the spectrum we see.
To put it in very basic terms, the canine color field consists mostly of yellows, blues, and violets. "Human" reds, greens, and oranges are not distinguishable to dogs and instead appear somewhere on their yellow to blue spectrum.
The reason? The retina of both species contains two types of photoreceptors, rods and cones. The human eye, however, contains more types of cones while the canine eye has more rods and no fovea, which is responsible for sharp visual detail in humans. The result is that dogs have superior night vision and are better at tracking movement than we are, but see fewer colors and shapes and objects appear in much less detail.
The bottom line is that tossing an orange ball onto green grass may look like yellow against yellow to your dog, but his acute motion-detection ability will help him fetch it anyway."

This would seem to indicate that there's some other reason Webster is drawn to the objects you mentioned, and it's probably a coincidence that they all happened to be pink. I've never noticed any color preference in any of my dogs over the years.

[BetteB]

Very interesting explanation. I didn't realize that this helps dogs have better night vision.

[Ginny Nightingale]

By coincedence, my Lyric's favorite toy is her PINK Wubba! But I don't think she can see color. The reason I say this is that my other doodle can watch TV and can see dogs, horses, etc. on the screen. Lyric doesn't see it. People think that some dogs have color vision (i have heard that this is especially true of poodles), so maybe that is why Mattie can see TV and Lyric can not. Just a complete guess on my part, though!!

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Murphy's favorite color is DIRT!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

LOL- yes, I think that's Jack's favorite color too! And he re-decorating the entire house in it!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

This is so funny, because I had read the same thing... that dogs really only experience color in the range of blue or green. Pet Smart had tennis balls in a package that included red, pink, purple, aqua, yellow and green. I bought them to see if I could try to get Guinness to differentiate. Interestingly he seems to have no preference....they all seem to be the same to him. The blue and green balls are no more attractive to him than any of the others. What it told me is that he may be able to differentiate among them, but he just doesn't care....a tennis ball is a tennis ball. They all do the same thing, and they are all fun.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Actually, it's blue & yellow that they can supposedly see. I have noticed that Jack has an easier time finding those color tennis balls in the yard, and has more difficulty when it's a red ball. I guess that the red ball on the green grass all looks like gray to them.

[Dan, Judi, & Timbow]

Timbow's favorite colors are orange and blue....whether he knows it or not. ;-)

[Debbie Penny]

Interesting, and we thought choosing a blonde playmate (Teddi) for Charlie, he'd have more fun LOL...

[BetteB]

Haha!

[Linda and Murphy]

LOL! Murphy's are purple and gold....but right now probably black and gold. ;-)

[BetteB]

I have noticed a color preference -- not sure that it's scientific... more anecdotal. I tried this "experiment" with 2 dogs. It involves the same kind of ball, two colors -- red and green. (My mother-in-law and I have the same toys)
Given the choice of the balls, the dogs consistently fetched the green rather than the red. I threw the 2 balls at the same time, alternating direction and hands. Not sure why this is the case, based on the science. Also, it seems like the green would blend in more with the grass. However, it is pretty amusing to play the game (I know I look ridiculous, throwing two balls at once). The dogs seem to enjoy it!