Are Dogs Color Blind?

Are dogs color blind? There has been a long-standing myth surrounding the colors that a dog is capable of seeing.

When I was a kid, I was always told that dogs can only see in black and white. I never thought that sounded accurate, but didn’t give it too much thought.

Now that I am grown up (sort of), I really want to understand where the misconceptions came from and the science behind the theories today.

So How Did These Misconceptions Start?

Scientists did some research about a hundred years ago that led them to believe that dogs were color blind.

They observed that a dog’s retina did not contain the cone-shaped cells that human eyes possess. These cells were believed to be the reason that eyes could perceive color.

When a human was thought to be color blind, these cone-shaped cells were often found to be lacking.

This was enough evidence to conclude that dogs can only see in black and white. While this may seem like insufficient evidence, this was done over a hundred years ago.

Today, scientists have finally proven that dogs do have the ability to see some color.

New Research Proves Dogs Are Not Color Blind

Scientists from the American University have conducted new research that has determined, once and for all, that dogs do indeed perceive color.

Like the earlier research says, humans do have three cone-shaped cells that perceive color. We can see blue, yellow, red and green light.

Where they differ from the earlier research is in the presence of these cells in the retinas of dogs. Dogs do indeed have these cells, but they have two instead of three. This gives dogs the ability to perceive blue and yellow, but not red or green.

So, basically, dogs have the visual ability of a color blind human. They may not see colors the way that we see them, but they do see colors.