How Scientists Confirmed Color Blindness In Dogs

The premiere episode of the new Howtown show by journalists Adam Cole and Joss Fong features a fascinating discussion about the manner in which scientists confirmed the spectrum of colors that dogs can and cannot see. Cole and science vlogger Chloe Abram spoke with Jay Neitz, a scientist who conducted one such experiment in 1989 with his toy poodle Retina.

I went home at lunchtime and got my dog, a toy poodle appropriately named Retina. Brought him into the laboratory seven days a week for a year. Lab setup was a little chamber.There were three disks illuminated from behind.The dog was trained to boop whatever disk looked different with her nose. If she chose right,she heard a click and got a little treat.If she chose wrong, no treat and a buzzer sound.

Veterinary researcher Phillipa Johnson and dog cognition researcher Alexandra Horowitz spoke about how a dog’s keen sense of smell is a large part of their sensory experience despite their color blindness.

Dogs do have a hugely larger olfactory system. They’re detecting things that we are completely unable to detect. There’s a bunch of studies that show dogs can smell cancer, malaria, Covid 19 explosives, diseased avocado trees, whale poop on the ocean, even the emotional state of their owners. …dogs can identify structures in the room from scent as well as from from vision. Seeing and smelling are interwoven in an important way. And that is something completely unlike what we have in our brain.