Dogs- Dog Color Vision - Episode 313



Can our canines see colors?
We’re Elizabeth and Caitlin. Our pets Sassie and Chime are agility dogs, and they’ve been in training since they were puppies. We noticed that the target obstacles in their agility course have some of the same colors on them, like yellow and blue. We always thought dogs were colorblind. No one could say Sassie and Charm aren’t colorful, but our DragonflyTV question is: Can our dogs see colors, or are they really colorblind?

How would you investigate this question?
Think about how challenging it is to learn what an animal can see. Design a test that uses your dog’s skills (playing fetch, for example) as a way to figure out what it can see. Should you begin by assuming dogs are colorblind, or should you assume they see colors? How does your assumption affect the design of your test? Write your investigation ideas in your notebook, and talk about them with your classmates. Go to Colorblind Dogs to learn what Elizabeth and Caitlin did, and what they found out about their dogs’ vision.