Normal and Colorblind

SUMMARY: Tika seems fine. Discussion on dog vision.

At dinnertime Friday evening, when Tika would normally crouch to the ground and then spring straight up into the air while I'm walking into the kitchen with her food bowl, she merely crouched partway and then simply stood partially upright on her back legs. That along with a few more yelps had me convinced that it was time to take her to the vet Saturday morning. But, come Saturday morning, she seemed fine. So she hasn't been to the vet, and she's been springing straight into the air as normal at feeding time. So much for whatever it was.

There's been a discussion on The Bay Team mailing list about what dogs see. Dogs have a much wider arc of vision than we do--those predatory beasts--although their color vision is much more restricted.

Here are a couple of articles on the subject passed along by the other Bay Team Ellen:

• Canine Vision
• Color and Acuity Differencesbetween Dogs and Humans

This led to a question of whether a dog couldn't tell the difference between the red and yellow portions of dog agility equipment (when someone chooses those colors). Using this nifty site's tools, I could posit that it has as much to do with the saturation or shade of the various colors; here's how a dog might see a couple of pieces of red/yellow equipment (Aframe and tire):


And here's why it might be harder for my dogs to find an obvious hot-pink squeaky on the bright green lawn than it is for me:

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