Making Dogs Less Afraid of Stairs by Changing Their Color

Because dogs had previously lived on flat ground and had never seen stairs, when they arrived in a house with stairs, they might be resistant to going up and down stairs. Some dogs with visual impairment, bone problems, and short legs would also be tense when going up and down stairs. With the in-depth study of pets, it was found that changing the color of the stairs might make dogs no longer afraid of stairs. Specifically, I'll tell you the reason why.

In dogs' eyes, the photoreceptors (also called cone cells) are fewer than humans, and there are only two kinds. Humans have three kinds. Photoreceptors are responsible for transmitting signals related to color to the brain, which causes dogs to have a much poorer color discrimination ability compared to humans. Firstly, the variety of colors they can perceive is less than humans. Secondly, the intensity with which they perceive the colors is not as strong as humans.

The two photoreceptors, blue and yellow, are the colors that dogs can see most clearly. For example, colors that we see as red, orange, yellow, and green, appear as shades of yellow to dogs.

Knowing this, we might think of ways to make fearful dogs no longer afraid of stairs, such as painting the stairs blue or yellow.

And indeed, there are successful cases to prove that a US dog adoption center painted the stairs and the previously tense dogs going up and down stairs began to become confident and no longer afraid. Because before painting, dogs couldn't distinguish each step, after painting, they could see it very clearly.