Contrary to Popular Belief, Dogs Aren’t Color Blind

Everyone seems to think that dogs can only see black and white. But this actually isn’t true! While dogs do have more limited and different vision than us, they do actually see color.

Humans have three types of color receptors cells in our eyes: these are sensitive individually to red, green, and blue light. Some humans are red-green or blue-yellow colorblind, where they cannot tell the difference between these two colors.

Our pup’s vision is most similar to a human who is red-green colorblind, but there are some differences. Dogs are less sensitive to variations in gray shades than humans are and only about half as sensitive to changes in brightness. Dogs also tend to be nearsighted.

While you may have always thought you had better vision than your dog, there are areas where they excel above us. Dogs are 10 to 20 times more sensitive to motion at a distance than humans. Their vision is also much better during dawn and dusk.

So don’t feel bad for your dog if they can’t find their red ball in a field of green grass. Their vision isn’t actually that bad! What they lack in vision, they gain in all their other senses.