Learn more about your dog’s vision and you’ll understand more about her perspective.
Dogs see the world from an entirely different perspective than people do. This applies to their vantage point, vision type, range of vision, and night vision abilities. By knowing a bit more about your how you dog sees, you’ll be better able to understand her behavior and perspective.
Canine Vision
Dogs view their world from a completely different vantage point than we do. For example, if you have a small dog and want to see the world from her point of view, lie down on your stomach and see how different everything looks from down there. Even if you have a larger dog, their perspective should be taken into account, because it certainly influences their behavior in different ways.
Because dogs are predators, their eyes are uniquely adapted to seek out prey, but selective breeding has also played with eye placement, so different breeds have certain characteristics that enable them to be very good at particular jobs. The eyes of a Greyhound, for example, are located closer together on the head and their stereoscopic vision means that they're better suited to seeing small moving objects from half a mile away.
Here are some more interesting facts about canine vision:
- Field of vision is the entire area that a person or dog is able to see when their eyes are fixed in one position. While we have a field of vision of about 180 degrees, dogs can see an entire area up to 240 degrees.
- Dogs have a layer of eye tissue called the tapetum lucidum, which reflects light into the retina, meaning the minimum threshold of light needed for a dog to see is significantly lower than that needed for humans. This is important for predators because prey becomes an easier target at peak activity times, such as dawn and dusk. In order to hunt effectively canine vision needs to operate most efficiently during these periods of low light.
- Dogs have what is known as dichromatic vision, meaning they are able to see in shades of yellow and blue, but not in shades of red to green. So when your dog can’t find that red toy you just threw for her on the green grass, she's not being stupid or distracted – she's probably having difficulty seeing where it is.
Related reading
Reference
Horowitz, A. (2010). Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know. Scribner.
