Canine color vision

… experiments showed that dogs do see color, but in a more limited range than […] humans, who see the rainbow of colors described by “VIBGYOR”: Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red. Instead, dogs see “VIBYYYR” (Violet, Indigo, Blue, Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, and Red). The colors Green, Yellow, and Orange all look alike to dogs; but look different from Red and different from the various Blues and Purples. Dogs are very good at telling different shades of VIB apart. Finally, Blue-Green looks White to dogs.
– Dana K. Vaughan, Ph.D., Dept. of Biology, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh

This is the best information I can find about the color vision of dogs. I really like playing with different colored discs. They make my human eyes happy, but I have a feeling that in most conditions using any color other than white puts Bonnie at a disadvantage. As the article points out, many factors make a greater contribution to a dog’s ability to see an object than color, but if dogs can’t distinguish between green, yellow and orange, using one of those colors on a green grass field removes one potential aid to a dog’s success. Too bad because currently this is my favorite disc (link to yellow hero xtra).

Interestingly, Bonnie won her first Frisbee award with an orange-yellow disc. The sky was overcast and white that morning and I thought the yellow disc made more contrast. Who knows if the color helped or hurt or made any difference at all. If I am ever reincarnated as a dog I will try to send a sign. ; )

[Links corrected/added 2010-Jul-01] Another article by Dr. Mark Plonsky. This one has illustrations to explain the differences in human and canine color vision.

Blog post by Mike Ettner.