That is because their vision is not nearly as good as ours. Puppies vision improves rapidly through 20 days of age. Contary to popular belief our furry friends can see colour, it’s just that the colour range they perceive is limited compared to humans.. In terms of colour , the canine color field consists mostly of yellows, blues, and violets. “Human” reds, greens, and oranges are not distinguishable to dogs and appear somewhere on their yellow to blue spectrum. Worth remembering if you think they can see your lovely new red jumper! Probably not and they are attempting to chew it because it smells nice is much more likely!! However, they are better at detecting different shades of grey than are humans and they can see more detail at night as they need less light than we do. Again, think about the time of day you walk your dog and if more at night then extra training to help them cope with how they reprieve the world may be a good idea.
They also have better lateral vision that us too and research suggests that this may affect how they learn to understand the behaviours of other dogs. Dogs are super good at detecting movement and may be able to see a human waving up to a mile away. which is though to be linked to their excellent lateral vision skills. Try this next time you are out with your dog and remember to do it in an area of minimal distraction! They are super good at detecting sudden or unusual movements and this sensitivity enables them to detect potential prey. That rabbit who you didn't see but hear a sudden rustling of the bushes and your dog is off now you know why!Humans have taken advantage of this unique skill of dogs and harnessed it through Guide Dogs, retrieving and herding skills too.
Excellent research has indicated that dogs can recognise an object that is moving almost as twice as well as when the same object is still. A fascinating fact but as owners with dogs who show reactive behaviours to humans or other dogs we then must consider how we modify their environment to help them. That is why when we are training and modifying these types of behaviours we set the environment up for dogs in what we call 'out of threshold' to drive early success.
Dogs can see a little further than humans but in a horizontal plane around them. Figures support this finding from research too but what is a fascinating fact is that this varies in dogs depending on the shape of their head! Known as binocular vision broad skulled breeds such as Pekinese or bull terriers have slightly more binocular vision than narrow-skulled breeds than Greyhounds. If scientists are right then some of the behaviours we see in long-nosed versus short-nosed dogs may be the result of how they precive their world........................ whoa!