Can dogs function almost as well in the dark as the light? My dog can get around a completely dark room or around a house in the dark without bumping into things. How does she do this? Do dogs need to be able to see to function well? How effected are they by the level of light?
Disclaimer: This is totally a guess:
Now. I’ve heard that the sense most relied upon by humans is sight, which is why we probably have so much trouble in the dark. Dogs, on the other hand, have other senses, which probably means that they are better able to rely on those to navigate in the dark.
Dogs have better night vision than humans. So do cats. Both also learn their local environment well. Last year during a power blackout at night, I had trouble finding out how to get upstairs to bed. 20 minutes later, my cat apparently had no trouble making it upstairs and jumping into bed with me.
If the room is completely dark, how do you know the dog isn’t bumping into things if he does it quietly? I have a friend whose older dog is blind, but you wouldn’t know it by casual observation. He does nose into things somewhat, but he seems to have a general feel for where he’s at and is basically walking around at a fairly slow pace.
A dogs vision is not much better than ours. They use smell to follow trails. If you put something in their way…it will distract them untill they find the smell trail again.
Dogs have more rods than cones in their eyes. This limits their color vision (relative to ours) but improve low light vision.
Here is a link
My dog was somewhat afraid of the dark. When I would take him out for a walk during the daytime, and tell him it was time to go home now, he would ignore me and continue to wander away; he didn’t care if I walked home without him. But after dark, all it took was me saying once, “I’m going home now, bye!” and he would hustle himself right over to me before I left.
Likewise, if I put him out in the backyard at night, any stirring by birds or small animals in the bushes would provoke panicked barking from him — sounds he would have ignored in the daytime.
Later when he went blind from glaucoma, he could make his way around the house if he was careful, but he would sometimes walk into furniture.