How can dog see in the dark

The ability to see in the dark comes from when dogs still lived in the wild and hunted their prey. At the time, they could only navigate and hunt at night using moonlight to guide them.

In saying that, there are certain breeds that have better overall vision or are less prone to eye problems. Labradors, for example, have fantastic eyesight. This is why we use them as seeing-eye dogs. Greyhounds have good peripheral vision and Great Danes can see from a taller height than, say, Maltese terriers. This means they can scan a dark environment much more easily. Many dogs get cataracts, or their eyes simply start to degrade.

Fortunately, there are a few ways you can provide decent eye protection for your dog. Doing so may help reduce their risk of future eye problems. However, felines win out in the night vision stakes.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Can dogs see in the dark? How can dogs see in the dark? Can some dogs see in the dark better than others?

Subscribe to the Petfinder Newsletter. Close Main Navigation Menu. Sign Up Log In. Hide Saved searches. How does dog night vision work? What helps a dog see at night? How well do dogs really see in the dark? The first part of understanding how well a dog can see in the dark is understanding how vision works.

Obviously, we know that we open our eyes and look at something. The image gets transited to our brain. Within our eyes, there is the retina. This is the light-sensitive portion of our eyes that does the transcoding of what we see. Within the retina, there are two different types of cells that distinguish what you see. These two cell types are called rods and cones. Rods help distinguish movement and low-light vision while cones distinguish color. These two kinds of cells work together to create a full image of what you see.

With both cells working together, you get a full image, but what if you had less cells of one type? Take for example people who are colorblind.

For a typical person, they have cones that distinguish between 3 different colors. These cones also combine color in the retina so you can see a plethora of colors.

This is what happens for some people who are color blind.