Is it true that dogs have black and white vision?

It is common that our pets do not distinguish colors, and the world see black and white. We decided to check if the dogs are really deprived of color perception.

The fact that the dogs see the world in a black and white palette, sometimes not only confident Users Internet, but even some Breeders. At the same time, in specialized stores toys for four -legged friends represented In all possible shades.

The most important sensory organs for dogs are smell, hearing and touch, vision Provides Usually additional information. Therefore, the eyes of the dog are significantly differs From the human.

Firstly, there is no yellow spot in it, site the greatest visual acuity, therefore, the visual acuity of the dog is approximately three times lower than the human. That is, at the usual verification table of vision, she could only see the third line on top, while a person with normal vision should be able to read the tenth. At the same time, animals are not short -sighted, the severity of their vision is in the range of +0.5 diopters, which in application to a person would be characterized as an easy farsightedness, which manifests itself Many people have after 45-50 years. Thanks to this feature, the dog, like other predators, better sees moving objects, so specialists are not Recommend Try to run away from dogs.

Secondly, unlike a person, retina of dogs Separated In two areas: the lower one is responsible for the ability to see in the light, and the upper - for vision in conditions of insufficient lighting. Due to the fact that the light at dusk is reflected from the special membrane behind this area of ​​the retina, and Appears The effect of the eyes glowing in the dark. 

The retina Contains Photoreceptors are photosensitive cells that are of two types. The sticks are responsible for the ability to see in conditions of low illumination, but they transmit the image only in shades of gray. Knukes are needed for daytime and color vision. A person has three types of cones. The former are most sensitive to long-wave radiation and respond to red-orange shades, the latter to the middle and, accordingly, yellow and green, and others-to blue, blue and purple. There are no cones of the first type in dogs, so they perceive these shades of the palette as different gradations of gray, which was able prove A group of scientists under the leadership of the ophthalmologist Jay Nitz. Their conclusions confirmed and Completed Russian experts in 2013. They designated boxes with raw meat with light yellow, dark yellow, light blue and dark blue paper sheets to prove that the animals will focus on color, not brightness. As a result, the dogs really remembered the color and confidently chose the desired box. 

Thus, although the dogs see the world in a spectrum that is not quite familiar to us, they distinguish between yellow and blue-blue palette well. That is why toys of such shades will be the most preferable for four -legged friends.

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Smell and color vision in the evolution of mammals developed in antiphase 
2. Online tool "Dog Vision"