What colour is that ball

 

Dogs do not see the same colour as we do. Yes, I know, you knew that didn’t you.

 

I was throwing a ball for my dog the other day and I remembered that he does not see green. Or does he?

It is difficult enough for us to see a green ball in green grass. Why do they make tennis balls green? Ok I know they are meant for tennis they are not meant for dogs.

Dogs should have a ball that is a colour they can see.

What colours can they see?

Well, from my research, green is not the best colour for a ball, if you want a dog to see it.

Some people think that dogs are colour blind meaning they only see black and white, yet in fact they do see colours, just not as brightly as human to.

 

 

A man named Jay Neitz at the University of California, by various tests, confirmed that dogs do see colour.  Instead of seeing the rainbow like we do as violet, blue, blue-green, green, yellow, orange and red, dogs would see it less brilliant and it looks  dark blue, light blue, gray, light yellow, yellow/brown), and dark gray.

Dogs see mostly yellow, blue and gray. To them anything green, yellow and orange looks yellow, anything violet they see as blue. Anything that is blue green they see as gray.

He determined that their eyes have two cones they see colour with and human eyes s have three. He saw that dogs can distinguish blue and yellow, but not red and green.

Russian scientists expanded on this by using four pieces of coloured paper- dark yellow, dark blue, light yellow and light blue.  From this test, and using meat, they concluded that dogs do use colour more than they use brightness as a stimuli. This was only done on 8 dogs. I am not sure I completely understand it but you can read about it too and decide. I read reference to it in the UK daily mail, and Smithsonian (see below)

 

This is the colour chart (rainbow colours)

The source of this information for me is actually Stanley Coran, as I read his article in Canine corner in Psychology today.

 

Stanley Coran is a psychologist and expert in dogs. He has written many books

You can check him out at

http://www.psychologytoday.com/experts/stanley-coren

I also read this from the UK daily mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2374872/Dogs-CAN-colour-Scientists-dispel-myth-canines-black-white.html

and in the Smithsonian

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/new-study-shows-that-dogs-use-color-vision-after-all-13168563/?no-ist

 

So perhaps the best colour for a dog ball is purple??

What do you think?

I also found this one interesting

http://www.petplace.com/dogs/are-certain-colors-of-dog-toys-more-natural/page1.aspx