Unlike that of
humans, dog eyesight is built in ways that make canines easily focus on their
prey, thus resulting to quicker motion. A lot of dog owners actually have the
misconception that their pet dogs are totally color blind. But contrary to
beliefs, dogs can actually see colors and they have in fact excellent night
vision. Although a dog’s sense of smell and hearing is more useful, their
eyesight plays a crucial role in the totality of a dog’s performance. To
further understand the biological make up of your canine’s eyes, below are some
helpful facts.
From a
Biological Perspective, dog’s eyes
are generally similar to that of humans. The eyes have its retinal cover all
around the eyeballs and are comprised of two kinds of light sensitive cells:
the rods and cones. How they perceive colors and the details of their vision is
controlled by the cones. During night time, their eyesight is usually
controlled by the eyes’ rods, thus allowing dogs to detect motion. Because rods
are highly concentrated in dogs than the cones, this allows the dogs to clearly
detect motion. Its low cone concentration is perhaps the reason why myths about
dogs being colorblind have become very popular over the years.
Professional
animal handlers, as well as veterinarians attest to the fact that dogs can
actually see colors just similar with how a colorblind human would see. Color
blind people generally are not color blind, rather they only have trichromatic
or dichromatic vision. In the same way, dogs cannot distinguish specific colors
like the greens and the reds. A dog’s eyes vary depending on their breed but
generally, the eye angles are somewhere around twenty degrees. The position
actually is ideal as it helps the dogs increase their peripheral vision, thus
achieving better field of view.
Despite the fact
that the peripheral dog eyesight allows them to achieve wider fields of vision,
it unfortunately disrupts the dog’s binocular vision. With that, it results to
less visual acuity- disabling them from seeing things from far off.
If you think
your pet dogs have eyesight problems, it’s about the best time to have a trip
to your veterinarian. Running eyesight tests for your pet dogs are very crucial
in diagnosing the problems. So the moment you notice your beloved dogs rubbing
their eyes on the ground too often, or they try to avoid from light, no doubt
your dogs have eyesight problems. Symptoms include bulging eyes, cloudiness,
dog eye discharge, eye redness, and excessive tearing. All these are tell tale
signs that your dogs potentially have eye problems.
Veterinarians
will recommend specific eye tests depending on the symptoms. For example, if
your dogs have dry eyes, the veterinarian may do a tear duct test. The doctor
will check for the dog’s natural eye moisture by carefully inserting a strip of
paper in the canine’s eyes. If you notice your dogs having eyesight problems,
take your pet to your veterinarian immediately. Also, these problems can be
avoided by regularly cleaning your dog’s eyes. You may also insert artificial
tears in their eyes to removing dust, hair, and other obstructive particles.
A dog eyesight
is just as important as their sense of smell and hearing. To keep your dogs
healthy and problem-free all the time, make sure you do regular eye check-ups.
