The View of a Dog

So the other day, while observing Harley, my brother got out a laser pointer and started to mess around with it. I thought nothing of it, until I was surprised to see that Harley had taken an interest in the mysterious red dot. It was peculiar to watch her follow the dot wherever it went, trying to chew and scratch at it. She even went for my toes when Dylan, my brother, flashed the laser onto me. 

I was so interested by this because I'd never seen this before. Well, that was a lie. I've seen cats chase around laser pointers, but I was curious why Harley had chased the dot. My other dogs, Nani and Stitch had never done that before, actually that day, Dylan had tried to flash the laser towards them and they couldn't have cared less about it. Also, I grew up thinking that dogs were colorblind, so I wondered why Harley was so intrigued by something she could barley see. I was as curious about this just as Harley was about the dot. So I had to do some research on this phenomenon. I was surprised to learn that dogs and cats are not colorblind, however, the colors that they see are less distinct than the colors humans see. According to Science Made Fun, humans have three cones in their eyes; red, blue, and green. These cones send the images to our brains that help us distinguish colors. Live Science says that dogs are either missing a third cone or it just doesn't work. The image below is the color spectrum of a dog and a human.

                                             

                                      (Color Spectrum of Humans & Dogs by Science Made Fun)

I'm not going to lie, this kind of blew my mind. I mean I went through my entire life thinking dogs only saw in black and white, so I never questioned anything. Harley could see the dot after all.  Science Made Fun also mentions that scientists test this theory by rewarding dogs with treats if they pick a certain color. It's important for us to know how smart our dogs actually are. Some people believe that dogs are nothing but animals who poop on the floor and retrieve a stick or ball if thrown at them, but dogs are so much more than a "mutt." Dogs are brave, kindhearted, and so intelligent and if we treat them otherwise, what does that make us? Dogs are man's best friend and we should give them a little credit. 

Science Made Fun left a link to a cool little Youtube video about colorblindness. It's a quick test to see if you could be colorblind. If you would like to check it out here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oADLENgvo4I

Works Cited

Palermo, Elizabeth. "Are Dogs Colorblind?" Live Science, N.p. 27 Jun. 2014. Web. Oct 17 2014.

Science Made Fun! "How Can We Know if an Animal is Colorblind?" Science Made Fun, N.p. 3 May 2012. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.