Hello Saddlebag Notes friends. Iโm Emma, your cheerful little white dog in SaddleBrooke. In this column, I share a dogโs-eye view on life by answering thoughtful questions with kindness, gentle humor, and a bit of tail-wagging wisdom.
You can follow more of my adventures and photos on my blog, Life With Emma in the Desert, at emmathewhitedog.com.
Dear Emma,
My husband insists our dog can only see in black and white, but I swear she reacts to certain colorful toys differently. Settle our debate: Do dogs actually see color?
โ Color Confused in SaddleBrooke
Dear Color Confused,
You can officially take a victory lap around the living room! Your husband is stuck in an old myth. We dogs absolutely do see colorโwe just don't see the exact same vibrant rainbow that you humans do.
Think of my vision as being a bit like human red-green color blindness. While your eyes have three types of color-detecting "cones" (red, green, and blue), canine eyes only have two (blue and yellow).
Because of this, the beautiful Arizona sunsets look a bit different to me. Red, orange, and green don't register as distinct colors; they mostly look like shades of gray, brown, or dull yellow. However, blue and yellow stand out beautifully!
This actually creates a funny little joke on humans. You love buying us bright red toys because they look so vivid against the green grass to your eyes. But to me, a red ball on the lawn looks like a dark gray ball on a yellowish-gray yard. It completely blends in! If you want a toy that truly pops for your pup, buy something bright blue or yellow. A blue toy on a green lawn is a canine masterpiece.
While we might lose the battle of the rainbow, we completely outclass you in the dark. My eyes are packed with "rods"โthe specialized cells that detect shapes, shadows, and movement.
We also have a built-in secret weapon called the tapetum lucidum. This is a mirror-like layer at the back of our eyes. When light enters my eye, it hits this mirror and reflects right back through, giving my brain a second chance to see the image. Itโs why our eyes eerily glow green when you take a flash photo of us at night! Because of this built-in night vision, I can see quite perfectly in light that is five to six times dimmer than what you need to avoid stubbing your toe.
All those extra rods also give us high-speed motion tracking. If a tiny lizard darts across a desert rock fifty feet away, I will spot the micro-movement instantly, even if the lizard is perfectly camouflaged.
So, while the world looks a little softer and less colorful to me, Dad says my night-vision goggles and motion-detecting radar make up for it.
If you have a question for me, I’d love to hear it. You can email me at emmathewhitedog@gmail.com, mention you saw me in Saddlebag Notes and I just might answer it in a future column.
With love and wagging optimism, stay paw-sitive!!!
Emma ๐พ
