Do Dogs Really Have Only Black And White Vision?

It’s been known for quite a while that man’s best friend sees our world through black and white shades. In fact, professional dog trainers have been choosing toys and training tools based on the fact that these pets are unable to detect one color from the other. Still, how much of it is actually true?

Do dogs really have only black and white vision?

As recent studies have shown, the statement is false – sort of. A team of Russian researchers from the Laboratory of Sensory Processing at the Russian Academy of Sciences conducted a series of studies to test the theory. They placed three different bowls among which only one of them was filled with meat. In front of it, there was a dark yellow piece of paper. Later on, they switched the places of bowls, but the dark yellow paper was always in front of the one containing meat.

Eventually, the dogs realized that they would find food where the yellow paper was. However, this would’ve been impossible if they couldn’t actually set colors apart.

Therefore, as it turned out, the subjects were able to distinguish 3 sheets of paper based on their colors. Either way, there is some truth in this theory. Dogs can see colors, but not all of them.

Apparently, dogs can detect only color shades of green, yellow and blue. As for the reason why their sight is different than that of other animals, researchers still haven’t come up with an answer. The recent findings that destroy the black and white theory, though, are a major progress in the way our best friends can be trained and treated.