Do Dogs See Color or Black and White?

Have you ever thought about how your furry friend perceives the world? Do dogs see color? Could it be that he can recognize all the colors of his toys? Find out what colors they clearly distinguish so you can better interact with them when they play together.

Dogs do not see black and white, they can distinguish colors, but not in the same way we do. We know this because humans have three types of photoreceptors in our eyes that transmit signals in the brain over color, while our furry friends have only two types of photoreceptors, which allow them to see differences in a certain range of colors.

How do they tell us that they perceive colors?

To know if dogs can distinguish colors, in the United States an investigation was conducted where dogs were taught to choose circles of different colors. During the study, they were shown three circles and the dogs had to choose the circle of different color. So they came to the conclusion that dogs failed in the task when they could not distinguish certain colors and did well with the colors they did recognize. 

Regarding the topic, Dr. Gerold Jacobs, professor of Psychology at the University of Santa Barbara and leading this type of research, said that although you can not determine exactly how dogs see, it is possible to say that the colors red, orange, Yellow or green are seen by a dog in different shades of yellow, while blue and violet look like shades of bluish gray. This means that even if they do not see all the colors that we see, they can perceive color differences.

What are the colors that distinguish the most?

Basically, they can distinguish the blue and yellow colors. 

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