# Light eyes



## SunCzarina

Tell me what you know! Otto is my first GSD to have lighter eyes. His sire's eyes are the same color but his dam's are dark. I've been noticing some pictures of darker dogs with lighter eyes and wonder, is it more common in black coats or very dark dogs? Both Otto grandsires are pure blacks.

This picture shows how light his eyes are in contrast to my female who has nice dark eyes. Oddly, her eyes always turn green with camera flash, his turn yellow


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## pupresq

Part of it is contrast - the darker the dog, the lighter the eyes are going to look in comparison because our eyes tend to judge things next to each other, same way putting a greenish blue next to a true blue will make the first color look much more green. We focus in on the differences. 

As far as the actual color of the eyes, our boy Leo is a borderline blanket/saddle, but is fairly lightly pigmented (cream rather than red or tan etc) and he has very light eyes. Grace is a dark blanket and has extremely dark eyes. Our recent black foster Dahlia also had very dark eyes. Chris may be able to offer some insight on the genetics - her dogs (of all colors) seem to have extremely dark eyes.


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## Rügen

Hi Jenn- 

I'm not sure about the inheritance of eye color. But the yellow/green difference you see in the photo above (I think) has more to do with Morgan's age and the development of cataracts. The article I linked below has a picture of an eye that looks just like Morgan's. Mully's did the same thing in photos as she "grew more mature." It never affected her negatively, just a part of getting older










http://www.thepetcenter.com/imtop/geriatrics.html


Eyes:
The most obvious sign of aging in a dog (and less in cats) is often seen in their eyes. That appearance to the center of the eye where instead of being dark or black it really looks like wax paper...that is due to a cataract. The normally clear lens begins to dehydrate and reflects light back from the eye instead of trapping the light and focusing it on the retina.


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## Chicagocanine

I wanted to mention that it is not necessarily cataracts if the dogs' eyes have that milky or light-reflecting appearance. My terrier started to develop that look to his eyes as he aged and one vet told me he had cataracts, however he still had perfect eyesight as he always had-- he was still able to catch a tiny falling crumb in the air and never had any sign of diminished sight. I went to another vet and she told me my dog had another condition dogs get when they are older which can cause that appearance but does not cause sight impairment. I believe it is called lenticular sclerosis and it is common to almost all older dogs, but does not affect their sight.


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## littledmc17

Brady has the Green/dark eyes and my lab has the light/gold eyes she is older than B boy
And that is with out me taking pics too


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## SunCzarina

This gave me a good excuse to look at old pictures. Maybe the contrast with the dark dogs is true. Luther had very dark eyes, so dark that people often thought his dots were his eyes. Looking at the pictures, his eyes look lighter in contrast to his big black head.

I found some where Morgan had eyes that look lighter than they do now, maybe they've darkened with age. Also I'm in total denial that my crazy chick is getting old! This was taken when she was about 14 months old, see the little whisps of grey under her chin? Green eyes too... I found some pictures where she had one green and one yellow eye in camera flash. Look too demonic to post those!


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## Rügen

Jenn, I didn't mean to diagnose Morgan, it was just a possibility. 
Mully was only 5 when the vet saw it, later I noticed it in photos. She never had any issues with her eyes or sight. Morgan is beautiful and only slightly distinguished, she isn't that long in the tooth!







So, I'll leave it to the experts on eye color inheritance~ btw she was an adorable pup!


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## Chicagocanine

If she didn't have any issues with her sight than it was not cataracts...


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## SunCzarina

It's ok, my girl has been slowing down the last year or so. Most nights she jumps up on the boys bed to read stories, it makes me sad to think about how much she loves my kids and after she's gone I won't be able to look at baby pictures without seeing how much she's always adored them. I wonder if anyone gets sad about these things when they look at dog who's only 7 - and yes I do feel silly but I love her to pieces.


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## Barb E

Here's an older post where eye color was talked about - with some pictures 









http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/ubb...&gonew=1#UNREAD


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## SunCzarina

Thanks Barb!


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## BlackGSD

I don't suppose anyone can explain this: (That is NOT some sort or
of "trick photography" nor is it "doctored" in any way. It is also not a "1 time only" thing, they always look like that when taken with a flash. His eyes look the same and perfectly normal in "real life". )


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## SunCzarina

Tracy, Wrangler's eyes are very interesting, I see something reflecting in his yellow eye -not so much in the red eye but they're both focused on the camera. I found this:

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=15699

"SquarishTriangle
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MessageID: 183805
08/07/2008 12:34:56 »

I'll have a go at it...

Here's what we know. The tapetum lucidum, formed by the choroid at the back of the eye, is wedged between layers of blood vessels on either side but itself is avascular. It is responsible for reflecting light of various colours, producing the characteristic iridescence seen in flash photography of animals and in front of car headlights, and is believed to be a nocturnal adaptation by increasing stimulation of the photosensitive cells of the retina.

In dogs and cats, the tapetum is made up of cells. These cells contain crystalline rods that are arranged in such a way that they split the light that hits them into its various colour components. A similar effect is seen in herbivores, but the structure of the tapetum varies in that it is fibrous (collagenous) rather than cellular, and it is the arrangement of the collagen fibres within the structure that is responsible for splitting light. The tapetum is absent in humans and pigs.


So here's what I think might be happening:

1) The eye that appears red lacks a tapetum lucidum and the result is the typical 'red-eye' seen in humans due to the appearance of the blood vessels of choroid and the underlying the cornea.

2) The dog has different crystalline or cellular arrangements in its eyes causing the reflected light to correspond to the different wavelengths. Interestingly, tapetum appears a blue-green colour in the Dutch sheep dog but an orangy colour in the Old English sheepdog.

3) The dog is slightly bung eyed and light is hitting the structure at a slightly different angle in one eye than in the other, affecting the way the light is reflected (but being an appauling physicist, I have no idea whether or not that is valid.)"

not sure what bung eyed means and I hope it doesn't insult your dog!


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## angel

*Angel has very light eyes,she is a 6 month old female*


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## Xeph

> not sure what bung eyed means and I hope it doesn't insult your dog!


They may mean bug eyed, and they spelled it wrong


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## emjworks05

SunCzarina said:


> It's ok, my girl has been slowing down the last year or so. Most nights she jumps up on the boys bed to read stories, it makes me sad to think about how much she loves my kids and after she's gone I won't be able to look at baby pictures without seeing how much she's always adored them. I wonder if anyone gets sad about these things when they look at dog who's only 7 - and yes I do feel silly but I love her to pieces.


Jenn,

I feel this same exact way about my older girl and shes only almost 5. I just love her so much that I worry about the day I will have to live without her, I do not think that worry is silly.


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## wolfstraum

Dark brown eyes are a bit harder to come by with pure blacks for some reason - just like big masculine heads are not as common on blacks!

There are also certain dogs who have had lots of descendents who had orange-y eyes - and they tend to crop up even 5 generations down the road.....got one of those...but the rest of her is so dark, it is not really any issue.

Lee


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## GSD07

wolfstraum said:


> Dark brown eyes are a bit harder to come by with pure blacks for some reason - just like big masculine heads are not as common on blacks!


 Lee, I'm just curious, why is that? I've also noticed that very thick undercoats are not very common with blacks.


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## wolfstraum

Don't really know.....perhaps a genetic cluster - like coated pups have bigger heads and bone....most blacks have lighter eyes, thin heads and lack bone...MOST - not ALL. I have only seen a few very masculine males who are pure black - p

I do have a black Xito Maineiche male who had a super nice coat and medium dark eyes....and Cito - although sable like Csabre - had the darkest brown eyes imaginable.... 
Lee


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## GSD07

Thank you! I saw pictures of Xito on your website. He was so stunning beautiful, absolutely gorgeous! Not massive but so masculine.


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