Most dogs, depending on breed, have eyes situated more on the side of their heads than we do, which also gives them a wider range of view than humans – allowing them to scan their environment more quickly. Jerry Klein, AKC chief veterinary officer. “Dogs have a higher flicker fusion threshold than humans, so a television screen that appears to show continuous motion to humans might appear to flicker to a dog, while this sharpened ability to see flickering light allows the dog to detect slighter movements in the dark,” says Dr. Generally speaking, the faster a species moves through its environment, the higher its FFF. Human eyes don’t have the tapetum.Īn animal’s ability to see in the dark is also influenced by Flicker Fusion Frequency (FFF), or the rate at which intermittent frames of light are perceived as a steady, continuous picture. This magnifies and enhances visual sensitivity under low light conditions and increases the dog’s ability to detect objects. The tapetum is a special layer of reflective cells behind the retina that acts as a mirror within the eye, reflecting the light that enters it, and giving the retina another opportunity to register that light. In contrast, the human retina is dominated by cones that detect color and function in daylight.īut a dog’s secret weapon in his ability to see in the dark is the part of the canine eye called the tapetum lucidum. Rods collect dim light, supporting better night vision. They are assisted by the high number of light-sensitive rods within the retina of their eyes.
When you take your dog out at night, do you ever notice how he alerts to objects more quickly than you do? Obviously, his stronger sense of smell is useful, but it’s also because dogs can see movement and light in the dark, and other low-light situations, better than humans. As dogs evolved, they retained this advantage to see in the dark, while adapting to function in broad daylight. They needed to be able to spot movement in dim light in order to track and catch their dinner or breakfast. Wild canines were crepuscular, derived from the Latin word for twilight, meaning they were active primarily at dusk and dawn. The place to start to understand what dogs see in the dark is with our pets’ evolution from wild canines.
However, when it comes to seeing in the dark, dogs definitely have us beat. But actually, it isn’t.ĭogs see fewer colors than most humans (yellows and blues), recognize objects only at much shorter distances (perhaps why your own dog barks at you when you’re in the driveway), and their depth perception is poorer than ours ( 30-60 degrees compared to 140 degrees in humans). It’s easy to assume that what they see when they look at the world is the same as what we see.
When dogs look up at us imploringly with those big, soulful eyes, they are pretty irresistible.