Color Vision

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

I haven't been on in a bit. It's probably going to be the pattern for a while. I'm starting a real business venture all my own and it's been intense hard work!

 

Anyway, it's a canine Bed and Breakfast sort of thing. In reviewing ways to make the "guest room" most comfy I was reminded that dogs ONLY see the colors blue and yellow.

 

I had forgotten about that! I have three teenage dogs (and one twelve and a half), all starting to have vision problems. My eighteen year old dog has some rear end stability issues also.

 

This is a big problem at night here - there is a porch, the terrain makes everything difficult to light, but even during the day it's scary.

 

Enter blue and yellow reflective tape!! And Driveway markers on posts. And on the stairs i have both. Now Maggie and Lu trot around without hesitation at night.

 

Just thought I would share this tip for anyone with oldsters or vision impaired dogs, or those who foster them.

 

The guest room, by the way, is Emporer penguin themed. Blues, white, black, yellow.

[KrisK]

thanks for that tip! Zachary definitely has vision issues with the threshold on the door...so I'll put a bit of yellow tape down for him

[D'Elle]

That is so cool. thanks for posting it.

[Laurae]

I hadn't heard that before, Rebecca. Can you please post your source info?

I'm really curious!

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

I've pretty much known this for a while. To refresh my memory on the details, the first reputable looking source that popped up in Google was this one by Stanley Coren from 2009: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/200810/can-dogs-see-colors I doodled around a bit in more scholarly sources and they backed up the basics. There is a nice illustration in that article.

 

I did some highly unscientific experiments with making food dough balls, and coloring them with cake frosting dyes, for my eighteen and thirteen year old dogs who used to be super at food catching. Bright blue, as opposed to safety orange, white, black, green, or red, yielded 100% catches and extreme excitement. It was sort of double blind because i had both kids throw them rather than me. LOL. Homeschooling rocks.

 

Sam and his new toy, dock diving training device thingy. I copied the design from Erin from these boards, but I added the color for my convenience in putting it together. Eg, pieces with two blue stripes are top, one blu is bottom, top pole has the blue stripe the width of where the cords for the bumpers go, yellow tape marks cebter point. But, since I WAS using color, I figured it may as well be dog visible.

 

Hey! It looks like a piece of agility equipment! Coincidence?

 

 

That's not how it's intended to be used by the way. Sam is breaking a stay and stealing the bumper. Look, see, my dog can hold a stay.

 

 

Oh, wait. Hmm.

 

 

That's better! I think there might be a twinkle of mischief there though.

[gcv-border]

This is interesting. When I saw your equipment, I immediately thought of agility equipment too- specifically the contact obstacles (teeter, A-frame, dogwalk) which were always blue and yellow (yellow contact zones) - or at least they used to be. Now I am seeing red, purple, turquoise - still with a yellow contact zone. I wonder how these other colors are perceived by the dogs?

 

Jovi

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Apparently those close to the blue or yellow spectrum bands appear muddy or dirty versions of those colors. So, a very yellow green (like safety green), is greyish green, according to the most recent best guesses. If it is a very dark color, like dark blue violet, the shade is most important. If you squint in low light, like dusk on a cloudy day, you'll get the idea of what they think is happening. My kids noticed yesterday, under those exact conditions, that the yellow and blue bands and blue cords were the ladt colors they could see when they squinted.

 

Another interesting thing, when my brain suddenly stopped compensating for my visual weirdness several months ago and I lost, among other tjings, medium to close up depth perception. One of my eyes focuses on a significantly different plane than the other. Not double vision, but x-ray vision. As i hold this phone (after turingg off a couple accessibilty features), im simultaneously seeing the phone, and through the phone, a clesr image of the wall behind it.

 

When I'm reading, howver, or typing, if i have the option to turn the surface blue or yellow, the problem is stabilized somewhat. After practicing yesterday and today with the bumper with the blue trim added and the frame with the colored stripes, my throwing accuracy is getting back to normal. Happy dance! So I wonder whether there is a basic link to eye structure in general.

 

And you say blue and yellow is no longer standard? What about on jumps? It's been a very long time since I've paid attention. They used to put blue and yellow stripes on the bars. Any other color would simply fade into the surface behind it, as dogs have lousy depth perception.

[Carson Crazies]

I wonder if putting yellow or blue tape across the back steps would help Zippy to stop face planting into them. Hm.

[juliepoudrier]

Now you know why Boy's ramp was painted blue with contrasting yellow at both ends. At one time, I had thought I should put yellow stripes along the edges, but by the time he started falling off the sides, it wasn't long before he was gone.

 

J.

[gcv-border]

 

And you say blue and yellow is no longer standard? What about on jumps? It's been a very long time since I've paid attention. They used to put blue and yellow stripes on the bars. Any other color would simply fade into the surface behind it, as dogs have lousy depth perception.

 

With regard to jump bars, I have seen plain white (jump bars are PVC pipe), yellow, blue, green, black, purple, red and pink stripes and even a B&W checked pattern.

 

Gee, I wonder if using the wrong colors on the jump bar is correlated with ETS?? (Just joking. I don't want to open that discussion again.)

 

Jovi

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Honestly, I wonder whether it was factored in, Jovi. This is where peer reviewed studies come in handy.

 

Laura, our steps are wood and the tape is stapled. Another alternative is concrete or floor paint, or reflective dots attached with cement adhesive. I have both the dots and the tape. The tape helps me more, but the dogs seem to target the dots as they trot up and down.

 

Julie, I kmew that was smart but couldn't remember why.

 

Now I remember where i first learned this, I think. Back when agility was just learning obstacles and essentially getting your dog from one to the other as fast as possible, eg, about seventeen years ago, I had a book that explained the colors. Also how to safely take your dog on leash, over a jump. Okay, the science was solid.

[appyridr]

Interesting article. One of my dogs is a classic black & white bitch. Jayne loves my classically marked red white dog, Dusty. He was the one who played the most with her as a puppy. She gets along fine with my other dogs; two white headed black&whites plus a blue heeler. I had her beside my chair at a sheepdog trial a couple years ago when she suddenly got all wiggly & puppy-flirty; I turned to look and saw another handler walking by a ways off with a red & white dog. Jayne must have seen his color as different somehow; she thought he was 'her' Dusty.

cheers Lani