Does My Dog Perceive The World The Way I Do?

You may have been told that your dog is colorblind. If so, this may have you thinking about how your dog actually perceives the world you live in. Well, canines view the world in fewer color and lesser clarity than we, humans, do.

Dogs are believed to have a limited red and green color vision because they possess more rods and less cones in the retinas of their eyes. These rods enable both humans and dogs to see in less light while the cones enable us to perceive color. Dogs, therefore, do better in low lighting but aren’t capable of seeing in technicolor.

While dogs have only two cones, humans possess three types, and while we see in multiple color, dogs, with their dichromatic color vision, can only perceive few shades of gray, brown, yellow, and blue. There’s a reason why dogs have good night vision and poor color perception and you shouldn’t feel bad about it.

Dogs possess a hunter’s nature which requires acute night vision and motion sensitivity. So, they can sense moving rodents faster than we do. Although knowing these visual capability differences does not enable you to completely comprehend the way canines perceive our world, you can be assured that your dog possesses other keen senses of smell, hearing, and touch.

Even with limited color vision, your dogs’ compensatory senses prove much more useful to them as they navigate life with you as their favorite human.