Question

[dessie]

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Willis states "Many judges seem to be obsesses by eyes in that light-eyed dogs, regardless of other qualities, will be summarily dismissed from the ring.  Eye-colour is basically aesthetic and it seems particularly futile to pay more attention to it than to some important structural and mental characteristics."
He further states "It cannot be overemphasised that insistence upon dark eyes is, in many instances, an attempt to seek the impossible.  .... Several breed standards insist upon dark eyes and in doing so make some coat colours impossible to achieve.  Such standards should be revised and their continued existence emphasises the dangers of allowing breeders, with no genetic understanding, free rein on issues they are not competent to decide.  It is high time that all standards were examined by geneticists to eliminate such inconsistencies."

If you believe in this statement and Dr Willis' credentials, methinks the AKC Whippet standard should be revised either in coat or eye colour!  :- "

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Hear! Hear! Couldn't agree with him more! Look at the whole dog and not just nit-picky points!!

 

[aslan]

That's very interesting Toni - and based on that information I would say that our standard should say that " light eyes (especially those in keeping with a light coat colour) and rarely occurring blue eyes (which can occur in any coat colour(?) ), whilst not the most desirable, are acceptable and should not be penalised ahead of other conformational aspects."

However, because we are not geneticists, before we can put anything about blue eyes in our standard, perhaps we need a qualified geneticist to investigate why blue eyes occur in whippets and why it seems, more often than not, it is only one eye that is blue.

Has anyone ever seen a whippet with two blue eyes?

 

[bardmand]

So I'm still confused as to why whippets exhibit the odd blue eyes.  You would think the genes would control the colour of both eyes to be expressed the same and not just one eye blue.    Reading the books, the d and b genes don't produce blue in any other breeds.  There was a mention of a blue eye in Poodles in 1932 independent of coat colour which was a recessive and bred out. 

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Just to add to the confusion: There is of course the slight possibility it is caused by a mutation all of its own, or even several different mutations.

 

[dessie]

But why do you want to make breed standards so complicated and put this, that and t'other into it??? KEEP IT SIMPLE!!! You just want a description of what the dog should look like and then leave it to people's interpretation.

 

[Ridgesetter]

But why do you want to make breed standards so complicated and put this, that and t'other into it???  KEEP IT SIMPLE!!!  You just want a description of what the dog should look like and then leave it to people's interpretation.

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We weren't suggesting changing the standard - only referencing the blue eyes in the breed extension. The question was raised to see what the consensus is because the original post was whether it is acceptable to show a dog with a blue eye. I would probably penalise a blue eyed whippet in the ring but others may not agree. I also wouldn't use a blue eyed whippet in my breeding program whereas others might and have.

Interestingly one of my co-workers was talking about her daughter's two cross Shih Tzu Maltese dogs this morning. One of them has one blue eye and she is blind in that eye.

Cheers

 

[Seraphina]

Interestingly one of my co-workers was talking about her daughter's two cross Shih Tzu Maltese dogs this morning.  One of them has one blue eye and she is blind in that eye.
Cheers

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And that is the reason why blue eye is undesirable. This kind of loss of pigment is connected to problems. It is often in a white dog with full pigment in the other eye. Cause of this has nothing to do with the pale eyes of huskies, that is what i meant when i said it caused by a different gene. This one blue eye is most likely mutation, it is a genetic mistake, and I am assuming once it is there it would be passed on to future generations if the animal was used for breeding. It may not be in the first generation but his/her pups would be carriers.

 

[dessie]

Interestingly one of my co-workers was talking about her daughter's two cross Shih Tzu Maltese dogs this morning.  One of them has one blue eye and she is blind in that eye.

Cheers

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And that is the reason why blue eye is undesirable. This kind of loss of pigment is connected to problems. It is often in a white dog with full pigment in the other eye. Cause of this has nothing to do with the pale eyes of huskies, that is what i meant when i said it caused by a different gene. This one blue eye is most likely mutation, it is a genetic mistake, and I am assuming once it is there it would be passed on to future generations if the animal was used for breeding. It may not be in the first generation but his/her pups would be carriers.

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Hmm ........... the dog could be blind in that eye for any number of reasons!

 

[Avalonia]

Hmm ........... the dog could be blind in that eye for any number of reasons!

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I posted earlier about the whippet female we paid to rescue back in the mid-80s who had one blue and one brown eye. Before we took her officially we took her to a vet who also happened to be a long time whippet breeder here in Canada to ask whether she was blind in that eye or not. She was not and the vet made it quite clear that blue eyes in dogs do not have any direct relationship to blindness. So I would suggest the blindness in the dog mentioned was related to other factors beyond the blue eye.

For the record, her eyesight was so good that Laura, who was adopted by our Irish Setter Sheelagh as her best friend from the time she came over the doorstep and became inseparable from her, was trained by us and field trialed under the gun by us alongside Sheelagh. She and Sheelagh worked as a team flushing, pointing and retrieving pheasant and grouse, a rare feat for a whippet but one where she positively excelled.

Lanny