Can dogs see in colour or just black and white?

Answer 1

OK, to settle the color blind stuff before more feelings get hurt.

BOTH answers are correct, depending on context.

When a man is tested in the military, or for a commercial driving license, the chart tests for color blindness. If he is deemed color blind, it means he can't see red and green, but only sees them as shades of brown..that is the human condition known as color blind.
However, dogs do not differentiate between red and green, so by human standards, yes, they ARE color blind.

But, some people think that the term means that color blindness is seeing only in black and white...dogs DO see other than black and white and shades of gray..so, they do see color.
They see yellow, blue, and tans/browns very well, and some shades of purple..but they don't dfferentiate red from green.

So, do they see color? YES
Are they color blind by human terms? YES
Do they only see black and white? NO

good illustrated color charts> http://www.uwsp.edu/psych/dog/LA/DrP4.htm

Answer 2

Not al dogs only see black and white colors..


Dogs do not see in black and white, they have colour vision similar to red/green colour blind people. They only possess two of the three types of core (colour sensing cells in the retina). There are three types of cone: blue, green and yellow (often called red). Dogs only have blue and yellow and the yellow core detects yellow and red. When the yellow gets stimulated it signals either yellow or red, the yellow when mixed with signals from the blue receptors will detect green. Therefore dogs can not detect the difference between red and green.




That's a theory that most scientists and experts go by. I however, don't beleive it. While many theorize that dogs can only see in black in white, there is no real way to actually prove it, other than the fact that their eyes have a very different distribution of cones and rods, which in the human eye determine whether or not we can interpret colors. Given that evidence, it is widely beleived that dogs can only see in black and white. The reason that I don't beleive it is that many dogs seem to have excellent vision, in both light and darkness. While color isn't necessarily a determining factor in such good vision, dogs seem to be able to discern features that, if they were colorless, would be nearly impossible to figure out.

Its all speculation...so until dogs learn how to talk we can only go off the scientific evidence that dogs lack a certain amount of structures in the eye that, in humans, allow us to see color. Maybe they really do see in Black and White, or at least multiple shades of black and white (its impossible to see in just black and just white). Although I don't beleive it to be true, I'm no scientist and couldn't give a completely factual answer, but if yo were to go by scientific evidence, then yes, I suppose that dogs only see in shades of white and black, but there are many, such as myself, who don't necessarily beleive that.

Answer 3

Dogs can only see in black and white.

Answer 4

I believe only man and other primates see all colors. Cats can see some, but not all. I believe i heard that green and blue are the same to them. Also, yellow and red. Maybe this is true of dogs.

Answer 5

I have heard that dogs can only see in black and white.

Answer 6

Dogs can see in shades of colors. Their blues not as stark as ours and so on. Reds more outstanding than any other color.

Dogs also have two different types of vision, wide or narrow(tunnel).

The wide vision is more characteristic of those in the herding group, collies etc, that is they see the wider picture, but do not see so clearly right in front of them.
Other breeds see in front of them but not the wider picture, that is they need to turn their head to see on a 45 degree angle.

Do they see like we do, No, do they see color, yes of a varying degree to what we see.

Answer 7

I believe they see in black and white. If you've ever looked at a horse's picture or human's picture (I know some are colorblind as well), you'll see that they have "red eye".

When I was looking at my dog's pictures, and other dogs as well - I noticed that they have "blue eye".

Those are just small observations. Here is some more information about it:

Dogs can see in much dimmer light than humans. This is because the central portion of a dog's retina is composed primarily of rod cells that "see" in shades of gray while human central retinas have primarily cone cells that perceive color. The rods need much less light to function than cones do.

Dogs can detect motion better than humans can.

Dogs can see flickering light better than humans. The only significance to this appears to be that dogs may see television as a series of moving frames rather than as a continuous scene.

Dogs do not have the ability to focus as well on the shape of objects (their visual acuity is lower). An object a human can see clearly may appear to be blurred to a dog looking at it from the same distance. A rough estimate is that dogs have about 20/75 vision. This means that they can see at 20 feet what a normal human could see clearly at 75 feet.

Dogs are said to have dichromatic vision -- they can see only part of the range of colors in the visual spectrum of light wavelengths. Humans have trichomatic vision, meaning that they can see the whole sprectrum. Dogs probably lack the ability to see the range of colors from green to red. This means that they see in shades of yellow and blue primarily, if the theory is correct. Since it is impossible to ask them, it is not possible to say that they see these colors in the same hues that a human would. Whether or not the ability to see some color is important to dogs or not is hard to say.

Also consider the perspective that dogs see the world from. A dog with its eyes about 12 inches off the ground certainly sees the world a different way than a human with eyes about 48 inches off the ground like many 5th graders.

As humans we tend to think of dog's visual capabilities as inferior to ours. It is different but it may suit their needs better than possessing accurate color vision would.

How Dogs See Color:

The current thinking is that dogs see in color but not in the way that humans do.

The latest article on this discussion that I can find a reference to is the December 1995 issue of the Journal of Veterinary Medicine. I haven't been able to find this journal in my collection, though. Maybe your vet would have it. I'll keep looking.

If memory serves me right, the thinking is that dogs only see blue and yellow or red and yellow (couldn't remember for sure) because they have many less of the cones (color vision cells) than people. On the other hand, they have many more rods (low light and motion detecting cells) so they see much better in the dark and they can detect much smaller motions than humans.

Answer 8

Black and white. Dogs do not have the rods and cones on the optic nerve that permits human beings to see color.

Answer 9

dogs can distinguish between yellow and blue, but they see predominantly in shades of grey.

for the dogs, peripheral vision is more acute than humans, & their angle is wider.
human's eye view: 210 degrees.
dog's- eye view: 250- 290 degrees

Answer 10

well, my little Bailey probably definitely sees in black and white, since he has one eye surrounded by white fur, and the other in black fur. I've always wondered if he sees differentialy cause of the shading around his eyes, but i guess your question answers mine. he just sees those two colors anyway. haha. thanks :)