How does your dog view the world when it comes to color vision? We have all heard old-wives tales and the opinions of others on this topic. Have you read the research on this topic? Would you like a summary of what they now know about your dog’s vision?
Basically, this is the bottom line on color vision and dogs. Their color vision is very similar to a person with red-green color blindness. A dog’s eyes are approximately one half as sensitive to any change in brightness when compared to a human’s eye. Their sensitivity to the shades of gray is also less.
Researchers have also identified a few other differences. as well. Although dogs can be either near or farsighted, they are more likely to be nearsighted.
Dogs are less sensitive to variations in gray shades than humans are, as well as only about half as sensitive to changes in brightness. Dogs also tend to be nearsighted to varying degrees.
Let’s take a look at a dog’s eye
Eyes of either a human or a dog depend on the retina for vision. It is the part of the eye that is sensitive to light. The retina has two kinds of cells that are sensitive to light. They are called cones and rods.
Cones are vital for detailed vision and they also provide color perception. Rods provide vision in dim light and also detect motion. A dog’s vision is dominated by rods. They only have about 10% of the cone concentration of a human.
This means that dogs have much better night vision than humans. Their motion detection is also much better than ours. FYI, it is also why their eyes shine in the dark. Dogs do not have the range of color vision humans have but it seems to be a fair trade-off.
You might enjoy this info as well. https://www.petmd.com/dog/can-dogs-see-dark
Photo courtesy of Pixabay