Color Discrimination in Dogs

抄録

In this study, an experiment was carried out to clarify the color perception in dogs. Two female Shiba breed dogs were trained using an operant conditioning method in which they pressed a switch with their muzzles in order to obtain some food, to discriminate between simultaneously presented colored and gray cards. The left and right positions of the two cards were shifted at random. After the dogs were fully trained, their color perception ability was tested on three primary colors, red, blue and green. The dogs were subjected daily to one or two sessions which consisted of 20 trials each.
The criterion of successful discrimination was 3 consecutive sessions with more than 15 correct choices (P<0.05, Chi-square test). In the red vs. gray discrimination test, the dogs respectively took 3 and 12 sessions to reach the criterion. In the blue vs. gray and green vs. gray tests, both dogs were able to attain the criterion by the 13th session. The results of this study suggest that the color vision of dogs is relatively developed and dogs are able to discriminate between all three primary colors and gray.