Are dogs colourblind?
By John Welford
@indexer (4852)
Leicester, England
October 11, 2018 10:53am CST
It is sometimes thought that dogs can only see in black and white, but that simply isn`t true. Their colour spectrum is certainly not as wide as ours, but they have absolutely no problem with blue, violet and yellow.
They are not quite so clever with red, but green is their only major blind spot in terms of colour.
6 people like this
6 responses
@marguicha (215148)
• Chile
11 Oct 18
It might be that they don´t see colors as good as we do. But they make up with other senses that are a lot better such as smell and hearing.
1 person likes this
@marguicha (215148)
• Chile
13 Oct 18
@indexer Misty, my former dog, would go to the door and wag her tail when my daughter Claudia´s car was coming around the corner. Claudia was her first owner.
@xander6464 (40825)
• Wapello, Iowa
11 Oct 18
The only thing I know for sure is that one of my dogs can instantly find a green tennis ball in grass that is nearly the same shade of green...Either she's going by scent or the theory about them not being able to see green is mistaken
1 person likes this
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
11 Oct 18
That is certainly an interesting point. I have to assume that these discoveries have been made following rigorous experimentation and examination of the structure of dogs` eyes - I have no evidence of my own to offer, other than the inability of my dog to chase a red tennis ball in the right direction if she hasn`t spotted it leaving my hand!
1 person likes this
@xander6464 (40825)
• Wapello, Iowa
11 Oct 18
@indexer My dog has that problem, too. And about these studies, I want to believe them because like you said, I'm sure they experiment and do their best but in the end, it always seems to be just guesswork to me. The biggest example for me is that for years, the experts insisted that we can't dream in color but I have always had color dreams and that made me a little mistrustful. Eventually, they did correct it and it's official now, we do dream in color, but I can't forget the decades they said it was impossible.
@nanette64 (20364)
• Fairfield, Texas
12 Oct 18
Yup, it appears that their noses (which pick up over 1,000 scents) is more important than color determination @indexer .
@JudyEv (325321)
• Rockingham, Australia
12 Oct 18
From time to time I've seen well-trained dogs bringing their owners the correct coloured toy or whatever. I don't remember if there was any green involved.
@Mike197602 (15487)
• United Kingdom
11 Oct 18
I think it has been known for a long time that dogs aren't colour blind.
From age 2 until 19 I had an alsation/lab cross and know she could differentiate between colours.
The science says they are not colour blind but don't necessarily see the full range that humans do.
