Question

Dogs can only see black and white

Comments

It seems that the claim was untrue and misleading. It was proven wrong by many sources before, and it originated from an author of DogWeek Magazine. Great fact check!

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This claim is seemingly incorrect, as there’s no source to back up the claim.

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I really like how this explains the myth in a simple, easy to understand way! The comparison to red/green color blindness makes it super clear, and the AKC citation is a nice touch it makes the info feel really credible. Great job!

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The claim that dogs can only see black and white is false. Dogs can see shades of blue and yellow, but have difficulty distinguishing between red and green.

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The claim that "Dogs can only see black and white" has long been a popular and widley shared belief. However, recent scientific research has proved that this myth is incorrect. Supporting the idea that dogs do see color, however, not in the way that humans do. I discovered that dogs have only 20% of the cells that humans have, which are for detecting color. (Pedigree, 2025). Because of the lack of cells that dogs have, their vision is more limited, only seeing yellow and blue shades. Many media sources altered the assumption that dogs only see in black and white, without prven evidence.However, research specifically in veterinary studies has provided evidence that while dogs do not see the full spectrum of colors like humans, they are not colorblind in the way previously thought, only susceptible to certain shades.
Sources: https://www.pedigree.com/dog-care-articles/our-help-hub/training-resources/do-dogs-see-only-in-black-and-white

Answer 1

It is true that dogs have a much more limited scope of vision than that of humans. However it is false that dogs can only see in shades of white and black. That myth came about from scientists in the 1930s but modern scientists have disproven this.

Human eyes have three cones for red blue and yellow. In contrast dog eyes only have two cones for blue and yellow. So dogs cannot see the colors red or green and any shades of the colors such as pink, orange or purple. But dogs can still see blue and yellow and the shades that are related to those colors.

https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/what-colors-do-dogs-see/

Answer 2

That claim is a common myth and misbelief.  According to my sources, dogs do see in color, just not as clearly as humans. The colors that they mainly can see are blue and yellow, but they, in fact, do not see only black and white. 

Sources-

https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/lifestyle/can-dogs-see-color/

https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/canine-vision

Answer 3

The claim isn't true. The findings I found were that dogs have dichromatic color vision. Meaning that they mainly see two colors, and they are blue and yellow, and they have a hard time seeing green and red. Dogs have 2 types of cone cells in their eyes that support limited color vision. Since dogs have poorer eyesight, 4-8 times worse than a human, and brightness ability 2 times worse than a human, making it so they tend to rely more on color. Evidence proves this with a new study they introduced. Which was an untrained oriented response to colored moving targets, showing they actually rely more on color visually. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5717654/

Answer 4

The claim that dogs can only see in black and white is false. While in the past veterinarians used to believe dogs could only see in black and white, that is not the case. Dogs actually can see color, just not the same way as humans, they see in shades of blue and yellow. Researchers have found the reason for this is due to the amount and types of rods and cones in dogs eyes. Humans are Trichromatic whereas dogs are Dichromatic, meaning they are missing the red-green cones that humans have.

https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/health/can-dogs-see-color/ 

Answer 5

My research shows that this claim is false, dogs see more than just black and white. Dogs don't have the same visual prowess that humans do, but their vision does allow them to see color. Dogs have fewer types of color-detecting cone cells in their eyes, which affects how many colors they can distinguish. This results in dogs perceiving a reduced color spectrum, but certainly more than just black and white. 

rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org 2. This source outlined an experiment by a team of Russian researchers who found dogs were much more likely to recognize a piece of paper by its color than its brightness level. The researchers printed out 4 different colors of paper(2 colors, 4 shades), and adjusted the lighting. The dogs quickly recognized change in the colors but not the lighting, suggesting color recognition ability. 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/new-study-shows-that-dogs-use-color-vision-after-all-13168563/ This secondary source, part of the Smithsonian magazine written in 2013, discusses dogs having two types of color receptors(cones), and humans having three. The source compares dog vision to humans with red-green colorblindness. This source was based on the experiment of the Russian scientists outlined above. 
The Smithsonian magazine has no reason to be biased regarding this issue, if they had any, maybe they'd be biased towards dogs being able to see color, because at the time that went in contrast with popular belief. 

Behavioral studies of the past show dogs having trouble differentiating between colors, and it's possible these studies are your only source of information. 
Evidence from the Russian experiment undermines this claim, specifically that dogs can see along a blue-yellow spectrum. This study, among others, have confirmed that dogs can reliably distinguish blue and yellow objects from gray ones. 
 

Answer 6

I checked the claim that dogs can only see in black and white and found it to be false. Scientific research shows that dogs have only two types of cone cells in their eyes, unlike humans, who have three. This means dogs have a dichromatic color vision system that allows them to see some colors. especially blue and yellow, but not red and green. For example, red may look brownish to them, and green may appear as a shade of yellow or gray. This demonstrates how popular myths about animal vision can persist even when scientific evidence shows otherwise.