Blog - Red and Yellow and Pink and Blue...
“In both humans and canines, the retina of the eye is lined with photoreceptor cells which respond to light and, using electrical impulses, sends messages via the optic nerve to the brain. There are two types of photoreceptor cells; rods and cones. Rods are motion detectors and process visual information in dim or poor light whereas cones process colour and detail and work best in medium to high levels of light.
Rods are prevalent in both species, more so in the dog than us, however the same can’t be said for cones. The central retina in the dog’s eye contains approximately 20% cones whereas we have an area of 100% cones called the fovea.
Humans and canines evolved differently, including their senses. We tended to hunt during the day (diurnal) so night vision wasn’t hugely important to us, however our ability to determine different colours to help us forage for food and ‘see’ what is ripe and what is not, is important.
Wolves are not diurnal, and neither were the early types of dogs, it’s only been part of the domestication process that makes them so; wild dogs still hunt at night. The ability to see in the dark therefore, outweighs the need to see vibrant colour and, let’s face it, most of the dog’s prey is camouflaged; they tend to rely on their ability to detect movement along with their heightened sense of smell to survive.
Do you remember at school, probably in art being taught about the three primary colours? Red, blue and yellow; all of the colours that we see are a combination of the three. That is because we have three different types of cones; we’re classed as a ‘trichomat’ species whereas the dog only has two different types of cones and is classed as a ‘dichromat’ species.
Putting it simply dogs are colour blind; not seeing in black and white only, as used to be thought, but are blind to certain colours. Using the colour spectrum you can ‘see’ why orange dummies are more difficult for a dog to work with than olive green, purple and blue. If you were to place an orange dummy on the grass both would appear to be ‘yellow’ to the dog and it’s only his sense of smell that directs him to it; if however, he had marked the dummy’s fall then it would be the motion that drew him into the area ready for his nose to take over.” An excerpt from The Advanced Pet Gundog (2011)
At the time of writing The Pet Gundog in 2009 coloured dummies were pretty much non-existent, the best we could use for differentiation for our dogs was green, orange and white. The dummies in the photo are the first blue dummies which were made by Peter Chambers of Lanarkshire, who, following on from the initial publication of The Advanced Pet Gundog, felt inspired to send me a selection of homemade blue dummies to play with as they weren’t available at the time.
As Nick Ridley said in his foreword to the first edition of The Advanced Pet Gundog book, “I have quite a large collection of gundog training books and not one of them have any mention of what a dog can see in terms of colour or how the dogs scenting mechanism works and yet surely we should have an understanding of those two abilities as it enables us to understand why a dog can't seem to find what on the face of it seems like a simple retrieve.”
Using coloured dummies in our training can really help to set our dogs up to succeed, and if you haven’t got an array of colours already, I would look to invest in an orange, a green, a white and a blue, that way you’ve covered the whole canine visual spectrum.
We will never be able to see what our dog sees; the best we can do is help him develop his eye through consistent training, clear commands, point him in the right direction and hope he runs straight… however, tapping into the dog’s physiology by incorporating coloured dummies early on in his training will certainly help.
first published 17 August 2024
buy the book - https://thepetgundog.co.uk/Home/Books
join the club - https://www.lezgrahamonlinetraining.com/the-pet-gundog-club
Blog - Red and Yellow and Pink and Blue...
“In both humans and canines, the retina of the eye is lined with photoreceptor cells which respond to light and, using electrical impulses, sends messages via the optic nerve to the brain. There are two types of photoreceptor cells; rods and cones. Rods are motion detectors and process visual information in dim or poor light whereas cones process colour and detail and work best in medium to high levels of light.
Rods are prevalent in both species, more so in the dog than us, however the same can’t be said for cones. The central retina in the dog’s eye contains approximately 20% cones whereas we have an area of 100% cones called the fovea.
Humans and canines evolved differently, including their senses. We tended to hunt during the day (diurnal) so night vision wasn’t hugely important to us, however our ability to determine different colours to help us forage for food and ‘see’ what is ripe and what is not, is important.
Wolves are not diurnal, and neither were the early types of dogs, it’s only been part of the domestication process that makes them so; wild dogs still hunt at night. The ability to see in the dark therefore, outweighs the need to see vibrant colour and, let’s face it, most of the dog’s prey is camouflaged; they tend to rely on their ability to detect movement along with their heightened sense of smell to survive.
Do you remember at school, probably in art being taught about the three primary colours? Red, blue and yellow; all of the colours that we see are a combination of the three. That is because we have three different types of cones; we’re classed as a ‘trichomat’ species whereas the dog only has two different types of cones and is classed as a ‘dichromat’ species.
Putting it simply dogs are colour blind; not seeing in black and white only, as used to be thought, but are blind to certain colours. Using the colour spectrum you can ‘see’ why orange dummies are more difficult for a dog to work with than olive green, purple and blue. If you were to place an orange dummy on the grass both would appear to be ‘yellow’ to the dog and it’s only his sense of smell that directs him to it; if however, he had marked the dummy’s fall then it would be the motion that drew him into the area ready for his nose to take over.” An excerpt from The Advanced Pet Gundog (2011)
At the time of writing The Pet Gundog in 2009 coloured dummies were pretty much non-existent, the best we could use for differentiation for our dogs was green, orange and white. The dummies in the photo are the first blue dummies which were made by Peter Chambers of Lanarkshire, who, following on from the initial publication of The Advanced Pet Gundog, felt inspired to send me a selection of homemade blue dummies to play with as they weren’t available at the time.
As Nick Ridley said in his foreword to the first edition of The Advanced Pet Gundog book, “I have quite a large collection of gundog training books and not one of them have any mention of what a dog can see in terms of colour or how the dogs scenting mechanism works and yet surely we should have an understanding of those two abilities as it enables us to understand why a dog can't seem to find what on the face of it seems like a simple retrieve.”
Using coloured dummies in our training can really help to set our dogs up to succeed, and if you haven’t got an array of colours already, I would look to invest in an orange, a green, a white and a blue, that way you’ve covered the whole canine visual spectrum.
We will never be able to see what our dog sees; the best we can do is help him develop his eye through consistent training, clear commands, point him in the right direction and hope he runs straight… however, tapping into the dog’s physiology by incorporating coloured dummies early on in his training will certainly help.
first published 17 August 2024
buy the book - https://thepetgundog.co.uk/Home/Books
join the club - https://www.lezgrahamonlinetraining.com/the-pet-gundog-club