• Question: Does a dog see in black and white?

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      • Royal Society of Chemistry: Find out more on:
      Asked by mgarrido13 to Roy, Rowena, Nicola, Kieren, Kate on 14 Mar 2014.
      • Photo: Rowena Fletcher-Wood

        Rowena Fletcher-Wood answered on 14 Mar 2014:


        We all see in black and white – that’s how we see in poor lighting. The rods in or eyes work in low light but cones not so well. We have 3 cones, red, blue and yellow, but dogs only have blue and yellow or similar dog equivalents so they see red poorly even in full light.

      • Photo: Kate Nicholson

        Kate Nicholson answered on 14 Mar 2014:


        Yes and no – they don’t see colour as well as we do because of the differnt cones in their eyes, but they can see into the UV that we can’t. Exactly what colour they do see in, well I don’t know how the doggy brain decides on colour and they sadly can’t speak to us and tell us.

      • Photo: Nicola Rogers

        Nicola Rogers answered on 15 Mar 2014:


        the rods in our eyes just detect whether light is there or not – and can detect very low levels of light, where as our cones respond to certain wavelengths of light – we have three types of cones, those which can detect red light, those which detect yellow light, and those which detect blue light – however they need a lot more light than the rods for detection. Together the brain uses the signal from all the rods and cones to see in colour. Dogs do not have as many cones as us, so they are less able to tell the difference between colours

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