Color preferences in dogs: A replication study

Color plays a critical role in signaling important information for both approaching and avoiding items in the environment, which may result in animals having preferences for certain colors. Free-ranging dogs (Canis familiaris) in India have been shown to strongly prefer the color yellow over blue and grey (Roy et al. (2025). Animal Cognition, 28(1), 1–9). However, it is not clear if this finding is specific to free-ranging dogs in India or whether it generalizes to other dog populations. We conducted a replication of the Roy et al. study to assess whether pet dogs in the United States show similar preferences by measuring whether they approached yellow, blue, or grey bowls first. We conducted two experiments and found that pet dogs younger than seven years old first approached yellow bowls most often, replicating Roy et al.'s findings. To test if brightness rather than color accounted for this preference, we conducted a third preference experiment with light, medium, and dark grey bowls. The dogs did not prefer the light grey bowl, indicating that there was not an overall preference for brighter colors. Therefore, a preference for the color yellow could be a characteristic of dogs in general. Understanding dog color preferences is important for guiding the design of dog products and environments but also is critical for canine behavioral scientists who must make decisions about colors for experimental stimuli.