During the last decade, a lot of research has been carried out on the topics of how dogs visually perceive their environment, and a dog vision has become a topic which has been a constant source of study. Throughout myths and misconceptions, tests and trials, and anecdotal speculation, we’ve actually learned a great deal about how dogs see over the last several years alone.
Although there is a lot that still needs to be inquired on, what we know now about the canine visual experience is quite astonishing.
While the core function of vision is similar between most mammals, vision in dogs and humans differs a great deal and in a number of ways. And with many of us (like myself) growing up with preconceived notions about how dogs see the world, a lot of these differences get pushed aside by the influence of media and dated ideas.
So let’s talk about it: just how well do dogs see?
Do Dogs Just See In Black And White?
If you grew up alongside me in the 90s or earlier, you’re surely familiar with this one: black-and-white dog vision.
It was told to me by my parents and other adults in my life, and shown to me in movies and TV. Throughout most of my life, that was just the commonly-accepted conclusion provided. But the truth of the matter is that dogs do not have black-and-white vision at all.
The notion that dogs cannot see color may have been accepted for decades, but this is nothing more than a myth. The latest research and findings have revealed that even though dogs can see a shorter range of colors than humans, our canine companions do not actually live in a black-and-white world.
Do Dogs See Color?
On the other hand, dogs do not actually see in “full color” based on how we would describe it. Just like how some animals can see outside the human visual color range (like how bees can detect ultraviolet), our canine companions as well have a different set of colors that they can actually process.
Some of these colors are processed very similarly to how we humans can detect them, while others appear differently from what we might expect. None of them, however, translate to black-and-white. The colors that aren’t detectable to dogs are simply translated and processed within the dog’s perceivable color spectrum.
Most animals have a process to do this for colors that they do not have the ocular anatomy for (ie, the right cones in their eyes). In fact, there are other “normal” colors that appear dulled-out or brownish to humans, as well. Examples of these colors are red-green and yellow-blue, which our eye anatomy does not actually allow us to see, and are therefore instead translated into colors within our visual color spectrum.
This is exactly how some colors work for dogs: colors outside of a dog’s anatomical vision ability simply aren’t distinct to dogs, and will appear less vibrant or with a different hue than we humans would see them.
What Colors Do Dogs See?
Even though dogs are not able to see the full range of colors as humans do, don’t conclude that they are incapable of recognizing different hues. Like we already touched on, our dogs may simply be unable to perceive the actual color of some of the things around them.
But that doesn’t mean that inperceivable colors will be “grayed out” or appear in black-and-white. Instead, they will be processed as colors that are within a dog’s visual color spectrum.
Unlike the human color spectrum full of a distinct rainbow, dogs see a spectrum of browns, yellows, whites, grays, and blues.
What this means is that some colors, like yellow and blue, will appear very similarly to dogs as they do to humans, while other colors will instead be processed somewhere within that visual range.
For instance, dogs may see the color red as a blackish or grayish brown, purple as blue or grayish blue, and objects of yellow, orange, and green colors may appear as a very similar pale yellow to your canine friend.
Do Dogs See Red?
Dogs do not see red; to dogs, red appears as black or a very dark brown/gray.
Do Dogs See Orange?
Dogs do not see orange in the same way humans do. Instead, they see orange as a dull yellow.
Do Dogs See Yellow?
Dogs do see yellow similarly to how humans perceive it.
Do Dogs See Green?
Dogs do not see green in the same way humans do; instead, green objects appear more yellow-ish.
Do Dogs See Blue?
Dogs do see blue, and quite similarly to how humans see the color blue.
Do Dogs See Purple?
Dogs do not see purple the way that humans do. Instead, dogs see more of a grayish blue tone for objects that are purple.
What Colors Do Dogs See Best?
As we’ve established, dogs have their own way of seeing the world and have a unique spectrum of colors.
Dogs can perceive yellow and blue colors very clearly, and those colors themselves will appear very similarly to dogs as they do to us. But other colors like green and red might get lost in the mix.
This is why many pet products are made in the colors blue and purple. While greens and yellows tend to blend together, and red can appear more like a dark brown, blue and purple tend to stand out a lot more to dogs.
This is especially true of toys like frisbees and tennis balls, meant to be thrown into areas of grass and dirt. A blue or purple tennis ball will stand out more visually to a dog in the yellowish field of grass than would an orange one.
I’ve definitely seen this in action, as green and orange tennis balls seem immediately more difficult for dogs to find when playing fetch in the grass.
What Color Is Hardest For Dogs To See?
The color red is considered the hardest for dogs to detect among all the colors. This is because dogs do not have the correct cones to detect red at all, and so the way it will be perceived will be much duller and muddier than other colors, which may simply appear as the next-closest color on the color wheel.
Are Dogs Colorblind?
While dogs do in fact see some color, we actually can by human standards call them “colorblind.” This colorblindness, however, is perfectly natural for their species, and does not translate to full colorblindness or any sort of black-and-white vision.
In actuality, when we say “dogs are color blind,” we are actually assessing them from the human definition of color blindness. In humans, “color blindness” is an optical disorder divided into two types depending on the type of color receptors affected.
When a person cannot differentiate between red and green color, it is called “red-green color blindness.” About 1 in 12 assigned-male humans will have this kind of colorblindness, so it’s much more common than you might think! In fact, you probably know a few.
When a person cannot discern between blue and yellow colored objects, on the other hand, it is called “blue-yellow color blindness.”
Now, if we apply this human definition of color blindness to dogs and see the visual spectrum of dogs, we can say fairly confidently that a dog’s normal vision is actually pretty similar to the vision of a person who has “red-green color blindness.”
That said, this way of detecting color is entirely normal and healthy for dogs; it is simply the way their anatomy is.
Are Dogs’ Vision Blurry?
Another important point is that the view of dogs is a little blurred or fuzzy because their vision is significantly less acute than humans, and they can’t differentiate as well between bright and dim colors. Dogs detect a fewer number of colors and are also more shortsighted than humans, which means they can see things up to a short distance compared to humans.
A study from Theoretical Review posts a good point about the wide range of differences, anatomically, between different dog breeds, and that sight may be impacted by a dog’s breed in the same way that other senses often are.
Sighthounds like greyhounds and whippets, for instance, were bred specifically for hunting by sight, detecting motion and immediately bolting after the hunted animal. It would stand to reason that a sighthounds would have much better (meaning, less blurry) vision than breeds who rely on sight less.
Dogs are, in general, however, short-sighted and actually have poorer vision than most humans.
Do Dogs Have Night Vision?
Dogs do actually have “night vision” in that they are far better than humans at seeing in low-light environments. This night vision will still be blurry, but dogs are still capable of seeing in darkness far better than are we humans.
If you have ever seen your dog’s eyes come off as glowing orbs at night or in low-light pictures, this is a demonstration of the anatomy that allows dogs to see well at night. It is a reflective layer in the eye called the tapetum lucidum, which increases the amount of light for dogs to see at night.
Night vision in dogs is explained in further detail in regards to the presence of rods vs cones in the eye of a dog.
Dogs employ several methods of improving vision in dim light. Both dogs and humans use rod photoreceptors to function in dim light, but the central 25° of the retina in dogs consists predominantly of rods. In people, this region consists predominately of cones, which are important for color vision and vision in bright light.
Bianca Momesso in “LEADING EDGE OF MEDICINE-A REVIEW I Vision in dogs”
What this means is that the same anatomy that makes dogs less capable than humans in seeing color actually makes them more capable of seeing well in darkness.
Do All Dogs See The Same?
While we can generalize based on what we know about dogs’ color perception and low-light vision in dogs, it’s also safe to say that not all dogs will see exactly the same. The truth of the matter is that dogs are a very diverse group with a lot of different morphology between them. From brachycephalic dogs to sighthounds, there surely is a level of difference in vision ability.
Again referencing the aforementioned article in Theoretical Review, this study poses that breed (or, rather, the phenotype of the specific dog) must have a significant influence on how well a dog will see.
Brachycephalic dogs like pugs and french bulldogs, for instance, may have poorer vision than most other dogs due to the lack of a “visual streak” of retinal ganglion cells across the retina.
Why Do Dogs See So Differently From Humans?
This difference between the visible spectrum of humans and our best friends is due to the natural anatomical difference in the structure of the eyes.
The retina (a part of both human and canine eyes that detect light and colors) has thousands of cells that help eyes detect and differentiate between colors and movement. These cells are made up of two different types present in most animals but in different ratios.
The first type of structure within the retina are called cones, which serve the purpose of differentiating between colors. As we’ve covered, dogs have fewer of these.
The other type of structure, the “rod cells,” are the ones that are responsible for discerning movement and varying levels of light.
Humans have many types of cone cells that enable them to identify many colors and give them more clear and brighter vision under daylight and well-lit conditions, while dogs have only two types of cone cells, limiting their vision to mostly a spectrum made up of blue and yellow colors.
On the other hand, dogs have more rod cells than humans that enable them to detect motion, and varying degrees of light with movement, even from long distances. That’s why dogs can see and detect moving objects better than humans in the dark.
