Query about colour of GSD? Discussions

I like short haired black and tans.
I have a golden fluffy and a black long-coat.
Can`t get more open than that.

And they are extremely beautiful

But he would have expected them to have the correctly coloured eyes

Indeed xxxxx

Yeah, I guess. Educate me on eyes please!! XXx But I do wondered, how many of these dogs (now), need to have the correct eye colour? Over here, in the UK.

I do agree with the eye colour/pigment needing to be correct.
I've seen a lot of white GSD's with very light eyes, with no pigment in the skin surrounding them.
They usually have Lips,pads & noses to match.

The latest fad, seems to be for Livers...definately bred for colour as they are being imported from the States.
I'm ok with this as long as breeders admit they are putting colour 1st....& buyers are aware of this.

I am interested to know how eye color has anything to do with ability to work stock? Please, enlighten me, as I'm not able to make the connection.

Ive never seen (not saying its not common) a white GSD with no pigment, Flynn has gorgeous black eyeliner, nose and pads!

Me too!

Ok, I have had a very quick look at eye colour and this is all I have found so far:

'Of medium size, almond shaped, set slightly slanting, not protruding. The eye colour should be as dark as possible. Light piercing eyes are undesirable since it affects the dog’s expression. '

Just came across this intersting like ref coat colour:

http://blogs.dogtime.com/aringsburg.../brindle-german-shepherd-dog-the-lost-pattern

Very light eyes(almost yellow)are not condusive to controlling stock. You will not see any BC with yellow eyes & it's should be the same in GSDs

Bearing in mind that GSDs patrol flocks & do not work stock in the same way BCs do, for a sheep or cow/bullock to be faced with a yellow eyed dog would make the animal "freeze"(like rabbits do with foxes)& then the dog would have to get physical to move the stock back-which is not desirable for dog or stock.

I thought you would have known that muttzrule-going off subject a bit shepherds prefer merle BCs to have brown eyes rather than blue for exactly the same reason

Actually I did not know that Dyane, Thanks for the insight. So it has to do with how the stock perceive the dog (more as a predator) Makes sense as wolves often have those yellow eyes.

I have a GSD with a light eye (although with a Grade 1 Breed Survey) which unnerves both people and animals. With my other breed (weimaraner) which has amber eyes, you often find that they too unnerve people and animals.

Part of this is the problem by breeding just for one atribute you will loose others in this case the sex differentials this breeder will also breed from anything just to get colour regardless of health test: ie one bitch she used had a hip score of 60! also loads of inbreeding ie father to daughter matings, half sibbling matings.

There are loads about whites with brown noses and light nails look on any forum

What about CDA - although these breeders deny it exists in the GSD it does and very common they will also breed off dogs with CDA therefore passing this genetic condition on.
Some of these blue/white dogs have 500+ lines back to dogs with epilepsy
How is any of this beneficial to the breed? this is without the poor health test stats behind them aswell

I agree with wildmoor, the problem when a breeder is breeding for colour is that they don't selectively breed for anything else. So many dogs (not all) that have been bred purely for colour have weak nerves/no drive/ etc.

Anytime you are not selectively breeding for something, you end up breeding against it in the end.