The Eyesight Of Dogs
The howling of dog in the dark believed to be signs of its ability to see things unseen by humans would make your hair stand on ends. In spite of this ability, vision is said to be the least sensitive sense of a dog. Our four legged friends are noted to have excellent hearing abilities and ultra sensitive noses but vision of dogs is inferior to that of its human friends.
So how do dogs see? Dogs see the world differently as compared to humans. It was once believed that dogs are living in a colorless world as these four legged friends can only see black and white. Studies have proven that dogs can see colors but unlike humans that have trichomatic vision, dogs are noted to have dichromatic vision. Due to the dichromatic vision, dogs can only see some colors in the spectrum. Studies conducted on canine vision have speculated that these animals can only see various shades of yellow and blue. Dogs’ eyes do not have the cones sensitive to red and orange colors thus Fido and company cannot distinguish the varying shades of these colors.
Dogs see better in dim lights. Because of the excellent vision dogs can hunt prey and protect the family and the property at night. Dogs can unerringly capture prey even in the dark because of their incredible night vision. The protective personality as well as the incredible ability to see in the dark makes dogs relievable watch and guard dogs. By dilating the pupils, dogs would allow more light to enter the eyes so that they would be capable of seeing better in the dark.
Dogs owe their incredible night vision to the a layer of reflective cells called tapetum lucidum, situated behind the retina that reflects back light and allows to see objects clearly even in dim light. Dogs have a more accurate and developed wide angle vision and peripheral vision. This vision gives the dog the ability to see even the slightest distant movement.
Focusing on the shape of an object is difficult for dogs because of their low visual acuity. Distant movement will be seen by dogs but the shape will not be distinguished. An object that can be clearly seen by humans at 75 feet would only be distinguished clearly by the dog at 20 feet
Dogs and humans see the world differently. Even with its inferior vision, dogs still have the qualities that make them endearing pets.
