Question: are dogs color blind?

Monique Henson answered on 16 Nov 2015:

Hi CHAz! I think it depends what you mean by colourblind. Often people think of being colorblind as being only able to see the world in different shades of grey. Yet, lots of people are colourblind and can see most colours the way everyone else can, and just can’t differentiate between particular colours. It’s suprisingly common. This website has some pictures that give you an idea of how the vision of someone who is colourblind might be different from the vision of someone who isn’t colourblind.

In school you learn that there are three primary colours. People who aren’t colourblind have cells in their eyes that can detect all three of these colours. That means they can see any combination of those primary colours too. Dogs eyes are a bit different, in that their eyes are only sensitive to two primary colours. That means they can only see those two colours and combinations of those two colours.

So after all that, if you’re asking whether dogs are colourblind in the same way some people are – then yes, they are. But, they don’t just see the world in shades of grey.

I should mention that as I’m a physicist, I don’t know too much about eyesight or colourblindness! That means I’ve answered the question the best I can, but there might be bits that aren’t quite right because it’s not something I’m an expert in.