What's Your Dog's Favorite Color?

Source: SC Psychological Enterprises Ltd

Many animals have color preferences. For example, some advertising research has suggested that humans are attracted to the color red.

Suppose, then, that you were a dog toy manufacturer and you wanted to select colors for your toys that were most attractive to dogs. The dog's color preference would be an important bit of data. If you look at the most frequently encountered color for dog toys, it is usually red, suggesting that toy manufacturers have concluded that dogs have similar color preferences to humans.

However, a recent study from a team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Kolkata suggests that that conclusion might be wrong.

A Fundamental Question

Before you can ask which colors dogs prefer, you first have to ask a different question: Which colors do dogs actually see? Contrary to popular belief, dogs are not completely colorblind but do see a selected range of colors.

This color range is not the same as in normal human vision, and is more like (but not exactly the same as) a particular form of color blindness in humans called protanopia. Basically, this means that dogs see the world in shades of blue and yellow, and of course, gray. You can see the difference between human and canine vision in this figure.

Source: SC Psychological Enterprises Ltd

Notice that half of the dog's color spectrum is yellow, and the other is blue. The yellows vary in brightness and saturation from dandelion yellow to a dull yellow brown, while the blues vary from light sky blue to deep Prussian blue. Patches that are not colored or are very faintly colored usually appear as gray.

Testing Canine Color Preferences

Based on the knowledge of which colors a dog actually sees, the research team, headed by Anamitra Roy and senior researcher Anindita Bhadra, knew that they should be testing color preferences using three basic colors: yellow, gray, and blue. They chose to test a sample of free-ranging dogs, which are common in India. These dogs live by scavenging and by the kindness of people who feed them scraps. Thus, they are not likely to have learned the significance of any given color due to interactions with people, toys, or such like.

The testing ultimately involved 458 free-ranging dogs. Each dog was tested only once. In test trials (which were conducted outdoors and on the streets where these dogs normally live), dogs were presented with a set of bowls that differed in color. In the main test, the colors were yellow, gray, or blue, as can be seen in this figure. The bowls were empty and put down simultaneously on a board.

Testing setup

Source: Roy A, Lahiri A, Nandi S, et. al, 2025, Animal Cognition, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Which Color in Their Limited Color Range Do Dogs Prefer?

The test was short and quick. Whichever bowl the dog investigated first—which is defined here as placing his nose within around 5 cm (2 inches) of a bowl—was taken to be that dog's choice. As the data figure shows, dogs were more than twice as likely to select the yellow bowl as they were to select either the blue or the gray bowl. Generally speaking, the dogs made a direct beeline toward the yellow bowl.

Source: Roy A, Lahiri A, Nandi S, et. al, 2025, Animal Cognition, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

To test how strong this preference for yellow was, the researchers paired the yellow bowl with just the gray bowl, but this time put a bit of bait (a morsel of chicken) in the gray bowl. Even under these conditions, 77 percent of the dogs ran first to the yellow bowl, showing a powerful preference. (Of course, immediately after finding the yellow bowl was empty, they dashed over to the baited gray bowl.)

So, Why Do Dogs Prefer Yellow?

When it comes to understanding why dogs have an apparent preference for yellow, or at least colors that appear to be yellowish to them, the research team offered no clear idea as to what the reason might be; however, a glance at this next figure might give you an idea.

Source: SC Psychological Enterprises Ltd

Dogs are well known to be food motivated, and this is especially the case for a free-ranging dog that has to scavenge for sustenance. If you look at the figure, you will see a pile of food typical of the foods that might be tossed out or offered to the dogs. Notice that the food items vary in color, with most being red, green, or yellow to the human eye.

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However, to the dog, they are all varying shades of bright yellow to dull brownish yellow. There is just not much blue food around in normal environments. So, it's likely that the survival instinct in dogs would quickly shape their behaviors to prefer colors that might, perchance, be food, namely something yellow or yellowish.

Why Are Most Dog Toys Red

So why are so many dog toys, like retrieving bumpers, rubber balls, rubber bones, and kongs, red? This research suggests that this may not be a good choice for a toy that might be tossed out onto a lawn for the dog to fetch and retrieve. The red of the toy will blend in with the green of the grass, making it difficult for the dog to discriminate, as you can see here.

Source: SC Psychological Enterprises Ltd

Perhaps the reason that so many dog toys are colored red is that the marketing data shows that the human eye is attracted to the color red—and after all, it is the human who is going to buy the toy, not the dog!

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