Have your ever wondered what your dog can see? Many believe that dogs can only see two colours (black and white) but this is untrue! Their colour vision, however, is somewhat limited and is similar to that of a person who is red-green colour blind (known as dichromatic vision). Dogs can only interpret a few colours: blue-violet, yellow and shades of grey. They also have a lower level of sensitivity to brightness and are much more near-sighted than humans. Therefore, instead of just relying on colour, dogs use smell, texture and position to distinguish between objects.
The difference in a dog’s vision compared to that of a human is due to the way dogs eyes are structured. The retinas inside a dog’s eyes contain mainly ‘rods’ which assist with peripheral vision, motion detection and night vision and few ‘cones’ which are responsible for interpreting the colour spectrum and vision in daylight.
To better understand your four-legged friend, you must appreciate that he/she sees the world from a different visual perspective than you! Don’t expect your dog to recognise you from a long distance with the use of sight alone! He/she will also need to use its senses of smell and hearing.
