Are dogs colorblind?

Are dogs colorblind? You might have come across many sources saying that they are.

However, dogs are not really “colour-blind” they actually see more than just black, white, and grey.

Unlike humans, their colour field consists mostly of yellows, blues, and violets. The reds, greens, and oranges that we see are not distinguishable to dogs and instead appear somewhere on their yellow to blue spectrum.

This is because the retina of both species contains two types of light receptors, rods and cones which are differently distributed. This is why dogs have superior night vision and are better at tracking movement than we are, but see fewer colours and shapes and objects appear in much less detail.

This means that an orange ball tossed onto green grass may look like yellow against yellow to your dog, but his sharp motion-detection ability will help him fetch it anyway.