Dogs are faithful and loyal, earning them a place in our hearts. While they are fun to have around, they can be a handful. Their playful and curious nature means that you have to pay special attention to them. More so, when you have loose electrical electric sources like LEDs, loose wires, or harnesses.
Are Led Lights Bad for Dogs?
No, LED strip lights are safe for dogs, with little to worry about. Be sure to tidy loose cables and lookout for signs of distress associated with LED flickering invisible to the human eye.
It’s totally fine to have LEDs in your home, even if you own a dog. There’s no need to throw out your energy-efficient LEDs as they can safely coexist with your pets.
Keep reading so you can learn how to keep your LED strips safe from your dog and vice versa. What you’ll learn:
- Why LED strip lights are safe
- What impact LED lights can have
- The colors to avoid for calm canine behaviour
Enjoy the read!
Led Strip Lights and Your Dog – Are Led Strips Safe for Dogs?
As long as you’re sensible, there’s no reason you can’t add LED strip lights to your home if you’re a dog owner. There are a few things you just need to think about when you’re setting them up.
Firstly, where are you planning on installing them, and is it somewhere that your dog could easily reach?
With the right safety measures in place, you should be able to add LED strip lights to your home even if you own a dog. However, you must think carefully about what area of your home is most ideal for your LED strip installation.
If the LED strip is installed in proximity to the ground, there’s a higher possibility that your dog could get hold of the LED strip lights.
It is common to find LED strip lights added to the underside of kitchen cabinets, which makes the area more attractive and stylish.
In addition, the electrical supply cables may not be completely flush against the wall, leaving them exposed to your curious dogs.
If a dog were to chew on an LED strip light or the cable that powered them, it is unlikely that it’ll suffer fatal electrocution.
However, they could get a nasty burn on their mouth, and the current can then disrupt other bodily functions.
The resulting effect could sometimes manifest within their lungs as fluid build-up, a condition with a survival rate as low as 40%, depending on the severity.
If you must add LED strips to your home, make sure they are properly installed.
Just like any other type of electrical cabling, LED strip lights should be tucked, and pinned to the cabinet to avoid loose sections. If you DIY your LED strip installation make sure you adhere to standard cabling guides.
Besides nasty burns, dogs can also get entangled in LED strips, especially if you use a lot of them. If they’re wrapped too tight, they can also choke and you may not be at home to salvage the situation.
Dogs are energetic and playful, so it is your responsibility to ensure there are no parts of your LED strip lights where your dog might pull and rip off the wall. Again, if you notice any loose sections, quickly tuck them away as mentioned earlier. Your dog’s safety depends on that.
Assuming you adhere religiously to these safety tips that ensure the proper installation of LED strip lights, you should have no worries about the safety of your dog (or indeed even for children!)
While our focus has been on whether LED strip lights are safe for dogs, it is also important to discuss whether dogs are safe for LED strip lights. Money doesn’t grow on trees, so you wouldn’t want to invest decently in LED strips only to come home to find them destroyed!.
Can Led Strips Damage Your Dogs Eyes?
LED lights are an improvement over incandescent bulbs. They produce light by passing electricity through a semiconductor.
To the human eye, LED bulbs aren’t like the old filament bulbs that could occasionally flicker or give off a harsher light. However, some cheaper LED bulbs do flicker, actually – it’s just so fast that we can’t see it.
Unlike old filament bulbs, LEDs do not occasionally flicker or emit harsh light. Regardless, some low-quality LED bulbs do flicker, actually – it’s just so fast that it isn’t visible to the human eye, but dogs can see flickering.
To pets, LED lights, especially those made with cheap parts, may have a strobe-like effect, and your dog is more than three times as sensitive to the type of flicker produced by LED lights than humans.
If you’re curious enough, you can put this to a test!
Start by placing your dog in front of a new generation LCD and observe their reaction, “Most dogs cannot be planted in front of the television to engage them,” says Alexandra Horowitz, author of Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know. “It doesn’t look real.”
Prolonged exposure to LED bulb flickers may even have long-term effects on the quality of your dog’s eyesight.
So what can you do about this? High quality LED strip lights will flicker less, so make sure you buy from reliable LED strip light vendors. If you do that your dog won’t get distressed.
Better still, unplug and turn off LED strip lights when you are away from home. It may be difficult to do this if your LED strip lights are operated via a smart home system, if not, ensure they are powered off before leaving home.
What Colors Of LED Strips Can Affect Dogs Behavior?
Most LED lights are RGB enabled, meaning you can easily pick the color you want to show from around 16 million different shades. This is why LED lights can influence your mood. So feel free to pick the right color for your mood.
If you’ve decorated your kitchen with LED strip lights, feel free to express your style with any of the colors that complement your theme.
Additionally, if you find that you are sensitive to certain shades of white light, simply switch things up by selecting a warmer light like a yellow-white tone.
According to Studies, dogs and humans process colors differently. For instance, dogs are capable of seeing diverse shades of blue and yellow, but greens and reds tend to blend into those or appear as grey.
Light color intensity also matters, dogs can differentiate between strong and lighter colors. To make your dog feel more energized, try a brighter yellow, for example.
Since most people tend to go for colors with a calming and soothing effect. I recommend a lighter shade of blue, somewhere in the neighborhood of pastel hue. The color has a calming effect and I’m confident it will help your dog relax better.
While white light appears calm, it may not necessarily calm your pet. A more gentle shade of a soft color can instead give your dog a more comfortable environment.
Blue Light from LEDs Lights Can Be Harmful for Dogs- Researchers Proved!
According to researchers from the University of Southern California, LED lights were proven to have harmful effects on wildlife, although this article focuses on dogs, we’ll make slight references to wildlife in general.
The study was based on a matrix called “Rapid Assessment of Lamp Spectrum to Quantify Ecological Effects of Light at Night.”
The research involved selected wildlife species from around the world, in a bid to determine to what extent the hues of modern light-emitting diode (LED) lamps affect wildlife.
The results further proved that blue and white lights, when compared to yellow, amber, and green had the worst effect on wildlife.
The impact assessment also revealed that certain wildlife creatures such as turtles and insects were most affected.
These days it is a common sight to find LEDs shining across big cities, especially at night.
By the time the study was conducted, researchers already had data on the species involved in the process. The conclusion was that blue and white light had the worst impact, with some having the same effect as the midday sun.
When compared, it was discovered that yellow and green lights on the other hand had significantly lesser effects because they were designed to emit less disruptive wavelengths.
Some of the negative sides of blue and white lights for the animals include: lights attract migrating juvenile salmon, exposing them to predators.
According to Travis Longcore who is a renowned author and assistant professor of architecture, spatial sciences and biological sciences with the Spatial Sciences Institute at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, in his exact words
“If we don’t provide advice and information to decision-makers, they will go with the cheapest lighting or lighting that serves only one interest and does not balance other interests”. He opined. Longcore also added that light pollution is partly responsible for the global decline of insects.
“We provide a method to assess the probable consequences of new light sources to keep up with the changing technology and wildlife concerns.”
Travis Longcore
LED Blue Light and Dogs (Behavioral Anomalies):
If you previously installed LEDs around or within your dog’s territory, and you observe irregular sleep patterns or lethargy, or any other form of behavioral anomaly, then you must pay special attention as they may be experiencing symptoms associated with blue light exposure.
So, how does this happen?
Similar to humans, dogs possess circadian rhythms(the cycle determining your sleep and wake patterns). CFL and LEDs are capable of altering these patterns. So your observations may be closely linked to the LED bulbs installed.
WHY does it happen?
High-wattage LED bulbs and CFLS emit blue light that sits in the same color spectrum as the radiation of the sun. Though ‘Warm LED light’ bulbs emit far lesser blue light.
The culprit here is the blue light emitted from LEDs and CFLS. Not only is blue light capable of altering sleep patterns, but it can also affect the eyes of humans and dogs.
Light regulates circadian rhythms in dogs and humans, so any form of disruption in light conditions can throw off the rhythms and leave your dog with an abnormal sleep pattern.
Without any doubt, we’ve established that blue light emitted by LEDs and CFLs is bad for wildlife and the health of your furry buddy.
The level of blue light emitted by LEDs is determined by the temperature of the LED. A color temperature beyond 4000K can be harmful both for you and your pet dog.
Here’s how to determine if your dog’s unusual sleep patterns are because of LEDs?
Simply put, if you’re experiencing any form of sleep pattern disruptions, and your dog seems to be experiencing similar disruptions, you and your dog may be under the effect of overexposure to blue light emitted by LEDs. Symptoms include restlessness, inability to concentrate, and lethargy.
What can you do to help your dog sleep better?
While it takes time for disrupted circadian rhythms to return to normal, there are things you can do in the interim. Some of which we’ll discuss below:
So, what can you try? Let’s dive right in!
- Whenever you find yourself looking through the aisles of a store for LED bulbs, always read the color temperature specification. Warm colors such as yellow, orange, and their respective shades make for a calmer and relaxed experience.
- Always purchase high-quality LED bulbs, yes they’ll cost more, but you don’t want to put the health of yourself and your dog in jeopardy just because you’re tryna cut costs. High-quality LEDs are worth every penny since they have a long life span.
You can also try the following steps in addition to the ones earlier listed!
Get creative with your dog’s bedtime rituals
A proper bedtime routine will work to overcome the effects of LEDs.
- When you find something that works, stay consistent.
- Improve the sleeping atmosphere by dimming lights or turning them off completely. That can also save you some electricity costs.
Irresistible treats
We’ve all been there, dogs feel the same way.
A little extra exercise than usual may proves effective!
Your dog is an energetic pet animal, so doing a little extra exercise than usual may prove effective during LED stressed days.
Don’t let your dog’s energetic nature go to waste, you can do better! take your dog out for a walk to ease any stress caused by LEDs.
- If walking is your thing, go for that! Just ensure your dog spends more time away from the stressor.
- Your dog can also benefit from a bit of training, an unruly pet is no fun, to begin with.
- Introduce new commands to prepare your dog for sleep, commands such as “lay down” or “go to bed” can easily be memorized. This will ensure that they are calm enough during bedtime.
It also helps to remove any form of distractions from their sleeping area, dogs are inquisitive creatures. If you leave toys or bones around their vicinity, they may not be able to resist the urge to get up and play with those items.
NOTE: Take it easy with your dog!!!
In the event your dog proves unreceptive to your commands, do not escalate the problem by being harsh with them. They need you now more than ever, get creative and things should be back to normal in no time.
Always remember that your dog needs time to understand the world around them.
So, do not get harsh with or too strict with your furry buddy, instead, show them more love and affection. Get them to play their favorite games, and slowly introduce your training in the process.
If you’re confident you’ve followed my instructions without any noticeable improvement in the sleep pattern of your dog, then you must replace your LED light bulbs immediately. You will also benefit from this action.
Can Led Lighting Benefits Cause Harm to Your Dogs?
Unlike traditional light bulbs, LED bulbs make use of light-emitting diode, a semiconductor, to produce light instead of filaments.
Because of this change in energy production, LEDs come up with incredible lighting benefits.
Because LEDs come in a wide range of colors and use less energy, they are going to be around for quite a while. Depending on the color you choose, you and your dog have a lot to benefit, in terms of mood from limited exposure to LED bulbs.
LED lights are available in a variety of colors, so you can express your sense of style. You can choose any shade of your choice from about 60,000 different shades around the world.
In addition, these energy-efficient bulbs are adjustable and dimmable, two characteristics that make them the best lights on the market. So you can adjust the luminosity of your LED lighting bulb to the level you want.
Quick tip to remember
Warmer LED colors are healthier choices for you and your dog, the colder the LED, the more blue light they tend to emit. Color temperatures greater 4000K will do you no good. Do not overexpose yourself or your dog to any LED light source for extended periods.
LEDs just like every other thing in life can be good or bad for your health, if you’re you are sensible in your use of LED lights, you should have nothing to worry about.
LED’S and your dog: Economic features and Carbon Footprints
LED lights derive their value from their obvious characteristics. They are unarguably the most affordable lights on the market and easily boast of a life span of over 50,000 long hours. The fact that they employ semiconductors instead of filaments is the magic that keeps them shining bright!
LED’s have a light carbon footprint, thanks to their ingenious way of producing electricity. They are worth every penny because you are rest assured that they won’t need to be replaced anytime soon. But, only of you purchase high quality LED light bulbs.
Since the advent of LEDs, we’ve seen a global decline in the emission of co2 per year.
So yes, it is safe to say that a lower carbon footprint has made the life of your fluffy friend better than before!
Conclusion
You cannot but adore the playful nature of dogs, they will explore their curiosity in several ways so you must remain vigilant. More so if they are home by themselves.
If you plan to add LED strips to your home, ensure they are installed with best practices to guarantee safety, and always buy high-quality brands to avoid flickering that could upset your dog over time, and you won’t have any problems.
I’d love to hear your questions and comments.
FAQs
Q. Do LED lights affect dogs?
The higher the quality of LED light you purchase, the lesser the chances they’ll flicker and cause problems to your dog’s eyesight.
Q. Are LED lights safe for pets?
Yes, they are, so long as your pets are not overexposed to blue light emitted by LEDs. Studies have proven that warmer LED lights emit the lowest amount of blue light. You can also opt for shades of green and yellow to lighten up your dog’s mood.
Q. What color LED light is best for dogs?
The recommended LED light colors for dogs are warmer LED colors, avoid shades of blue and white. Colored LEDs in soft shades of yellow, green, and pastel hues tender to have a calmer and more relaxing effect on dogs.
Q. Are colored lights bad for dogs?
No, that’s not true. colored lights are perfectly fine for your dog, the thing to keep in mind is the color temperature. Cool bright colors like blues and whites are highly discouraged, instead opt for softer and warmer shades of yellow and green, as these tend to work better for dogs.
FINAL CONCLUSION
LED lights are an integral part of our lives, they light up our cities and mood. We have journeyed through the amazing world of LEDs to reveal their benefits to dogs and humans, and we have also discussed a wide variety of LED light options for your home and pets.
LEDs like every other light bulb out there can be beneficial or detrimental to your dog’s health, it all depends on how you use them.
The precautionary measures discussed in previous sections are just common measures you’ll have to adopt if you were dealing with any other light source. Neat cables, high-quality light bulbs, and limited exposure are the things you need to keep in mind and I’m confident that you and your dog will safe from any harmful effects of LEDs.