Dogs really are colour blind!

Black_Apalachi · 08-01-2010, 12:24 PM

I know it's a known fact, but I just kind of saw first hand how dogs are colour blind and don't think I've ever witnessed it before.

I just went into the garden with my dog and was throwing a toy for him to fetch. The toy is bright red, about the size of a normal computer mouse and the whole garden is obviously white with snow

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Anyway, whenever I threw it, if he wasn't by it when it landed and stopped moving, he had to search for it because he seemingly couldn't just see it even though to you or I it would stand out like a sore thumb. Normally he finds it easily in the grass but the white of the snow must have some sort of effect on his sight given that they only see black and white after all. The cold must make it a lot harder for him to smell things as well because he was sniffing around and he even stepped on it with his hind leg at one point and still didn't find it immediately. I was watching a documentary last night on how dogs are the only species who can understand what it means when we point at something and it was just really funny trying to point it out for him

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~~hah~~ · 08-01-2010, 08:49 PM

my old dog alrway knew which car was ours even if there was two the same :S:S

jackass · 08-01-2010, 08:52 PM

He should of been able to see it, because it would be a different shade of grey to the snow?

Accipiter · 08-01-2010, 10:31 PM

Originally Posted by Biohazard

He should of been able to see it, because it would be a different shade of grey to the snow?

foot prints could confuse him with different shades.

and at car it could probaly smell the difference or knew were you last parked

Black_Apalachi · 09-01-2010, 01:03 AM

It was really funny because he's a pretty intelligent dog but it made him seem really stupid

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~~Orangeesh~~ · 09-01-2010, 02:05 AM

maybe he was just being lazy

**Alkaz** · 09-01-2010, 03:17 AM

Depending on how deep the snow was he could have thought it was something else, also bearing in mind, your eye line is about 3x higher than his so because you might be able to easily see it in the snow, he might not.