What Can Your Dog See...and How?

There are may theories and ideas among dog owners and trainers about what a dog can see and how, particularly relating to colour. I myself have observed common actions from my dogs in relation to preference to a colour of dummy thrown or the accuracy of the marking it; the whites and blues being far more accurately marked over the oranges and reds which I subsequently save for hunting. However in this video we ask James Rushton, the lead ophthalmologist from Paragon Referrals, what is really happening

DISPELLING THE MYTHS

and

discovering something really new for the way we think about training and using our dogs.

Watch the full video

Colours

Dogs eyes only have two types of cone within them (the physical structure within the eye which filters colours). This is just 20% of the number cones found in human eyes. As such their colour spectrum is limited to shades of grey, brown, yellow and blue. This is called dichromatic vision, and is similar to humans who experience red-green colour blindness. The blues and darker solid colours, such as black and in contrast white, are more dominantly visible to them than the orange, yellow and red spectrums. These latter colours will be viewed as very similar and almost merge together, with none standing out against a very similar coloured background e.g. in muddy ground, in leaf cover or in grass. Blue is likely the most contrasting of colours they see making it best for marking accuracy. By adding an additional bright contrast such as white, they will pick this contrast up with real accuracy whilst a dummy is flying through the air, or when sitting on grass which is a more muted coloured background for them. So these ideas and observations of many gundog trainers and trailers are accurate.

Puppy Dummies - with so many options and designs available to buy on the Kirkbourne shop - BUY HERE

In the more multi-coloured dummies and ‘bird’ like varieties, not all the dummy will be observed, however the white outlines on the replica feathers will be seen more than the main body of colour, much like it must be when marking and retrieving a quarry in the field.

A huge range of dummies available on the Kirkbourne shop to suit all your needs. BUY HERE

THE BIG DEVELOPMENT

Not wishing to spoil any surprises, however there has been a confirmed upgrade to the amazing talents of a dog, and one which could enhance the way we train when taking the surrounding environment into consideration…Dogs can SEE scent…they can see the scent trail as they are moving towards it as part of their sensory system, in almost 3D (1). It has been mused for a number of years this could be a possibility in dogs, and we, as humans, have also recognised their far superior sensory ability in relation to smell. It has been proved in many behaviour studies that dogs can distinguish specific scents (based on reward training) even when mixed with many other odours, to distinguish between objects (2), and consideration given that, due to the close location (some of which actually cross and connect) between specific sight and smell areas within the brain, that a sight/smell capability could be possible (3), but until this point it had no specific scientific backing.

SO…how could this new fact change how we approach our training? If a dog can SEE the smell, do we need to consider the wind direction more, the terrain they are running over in a different way, the colours we are working them in? Do we need to have a little more understanding on how their smell and vision are now being overloaded when in a high scent area and the reasons they are even more distracted than we originally believed if it were just smell? Do we need to link the ‘reward’ smell distinction even more when it comes to retrieving and hunting to really major on the quarry/dummies/items we are wanting them to retrieve, making them stand out even more? Or do we need to do nothing more with this detail other than be amazed by our dog's already incredible abilities and give them greater credit than we already do…

So fascinating, and one area to watch as it is developed further for our athlete animals and their outstanding abilities.

To see our full range of dummies and training aids available in every colour option, please go to the online shop and have a look

Watch the full video

References:

(Images used to demonstrate dogs colour perception and eye structures - Gelatt, K.N., Ben-Shlomo, G., Gilger, B.C., Hendrix, D.V., Kern, T.J. and Plummer, C.E. eds., 2021. Veterinary Ophthalmology. John Wiley & Sons.)

(1) Andrews, E.F., Pascalau, R., Horowitz, A., Lawrence, G.M. and Johnson, P.J., 2022. Extensive connections of the canine olfactory pathway revealed by tractography and dissection. Journal of Neuroscience, 42(33), pp.6392-6407.

(2) Chapuis, J. and Wilson, D.A., 2012. Bidirectional plasticity of cortical pattern recognition and behavioral sensory acuity. Nature neuroscience, 15(1), pp.155-161.

(3) Byosiere, S.E., Chouinard, P.A., Howell, T.J. and Bennett, P.C., 2018. What do dogs (Canis familiaris) see? A review of vision in dogs and implications for cognition research. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 25, pp.1798-1813.