Is It True That Dogs Cannot See Color?
Whenever the viewpoint of a dog is depicted in a movie or on television, the picture is often trimmed to be in black, white, and gray. This makes brilliant red flowers seem dull and gloomy, and freshly cut grass seem more manufactured than natural. But does this frequent depiction of a dog’s-eye perspective really reflect the way things really are? Is the animal that man considers his greatest friend really colorblind?
You should probably complain to Hollywood about how they’ve been doing everything wrong, because they’ve been making movies about it. Dogs do not perceive in black and white, but they are what we would term “color-blind.” This means that their eyes include just two cones, which are color sensors, while the eyes of most people contain three cones. In order for a person to be classified as colorblind, they need to have a defect in their ability to see colors, which is often caused by an issue with the formation of cones inside the eye.
In humans, color blindness may occur when one of the three color receptors in the cones of the eye does not function properly, leaving some people with just two cones that are functional. This condition, known as dichromacy, is a kind of color blindness that is distinct from the more prevalent human trichromacy and is analogous to the way in which a dog perceives color. Therefore, from a scientific point of view, dogs are colorblind (in the most human sense of the word).
However, if dogs are colorblind, which colors do they perceive and which ones do they not see? Only particular wavelengths of light may be seen by the color receptors in the eye, which is how they operate. Each cone in the human eye is responsible for approximately seeing the light wavelengths that correspond to the colors red, green, and blue-violet. We are able to see a diverse range of colors because to the fact that the color spectrum that the three cones in our eyes each detect combines and overlaps in various ways.
Dogs, on the other hand, have two color receptors in their eyes that only detect wavelengths of light that correspond to blue and yellow. This means that dogs can only see in color combinations that include blue and yellow. Therefore, instead of seeing vivid red flowers, dogs probably perceive petals that are brownish yellow, and vibrant green grass probably seems more parched and lifeless to them.
