Ive heard a few people comment that they wouldnt have a cocker with lighter coloured eyes and ive no idea ift there is a major reason why? I know a few golden, orange roan cockers with lighter coloured eyes and cant see why people are against them. Can anyone fill me in on why people think this. Thanks

I think its just preference. Some of my dogs have them and they dont bother me at all.

carol at January 17, 2011 at 4:44 PM

Ive heard a few people comment that they wouldnt have a cocker with lighter coloured eyes and ive no idea ift there is a major reason why? I know a few golden, orange roan cockers with lighter coloured eyes and cant see why people are against them. Can anyone fill me in on why people think this. Thanks

Is it to do with the age old fear of the wolf?

Lot of the old guys thought that along with the light eyes came dishonesty

Couldn't possibly comment

Fiona

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf??;)

I've got a black bitch with a lightish eye, and she's as honest as the day is long.

Andrew

If memory seves I think Keith Erlandson wrote about this in one of his books, something along the lines of he didn't like cockers with light eyes and gave some reasons.

Not just cockers Ess's as well. My Liver cocker has lightish eyes and they're beautifull. Doesn't bother me as he's a little angel  

The implication of a link between eye pigmentation, and a character trait such as honesty, which is quite subjective anyway, is very interesting.

Andrew

Nope my liver pup has a liver head  and his eyesight is exceptional!!

Just remembered, my light eyed bitch (Missy), is pictured on the home page of this forum retrieving a hare, so you can judge for yourself how light her eye is.

Andrew

Andrew W at January 17, 2011 at 6:06 PM

Just remembered, my light eyed bitch (Missy), is pictured on the home page of this forum retrieving a hare, so you can judge for yourself how light her eye is.

 

Andrew

I looking at her eyes I like the lighter eyes but then I'm baised, the lighter eyes give a softer looking face.

I like the lighter coloured eyes, one of my black Labs has lighter hazel eyes, sweep my black cocker has the same light hazel coloured eyes where Sooty & mouse's eyes are really dark.

Thanks for all your posts, my fav cockers of all time has the light eyes and he is a gold boy and he is just the sweetest poppet, honest as the day is long.

If anyone has any more info on this subject it would be great to hear it

Rio has light eyes but she is lemon and white. From what I can remember from the rest of the litter (all liver) have lightish eyes too.  I don't really have a preference either way although obviously I believe Rio to be the most beautiful cocker there is!

Is it just an old wives tale type thing though? A bit like in horses where chestnut mares are supposed to me more skittsh and flighty than other mares and other colours.

Sharon

Of the 4 spaniels I currently have, two have light eyes. Now I know it's not scientific, but those two are/were much more difficult to train. Both are great dogs, great around the house, and affectionate. But... outside, they're flighty, independant, a bit spooky, and less honest. They're both bitches, which may have a bearing on things in some peoples eyes. But I've seen these attributes in other 'difficult' dogs. So from my casual and unscientific observations, Keith Erlandson may have a point. I also have the brother of one of the light eyed bitches (with very dark eyes), and he's a completely different dog. It may be a case of many difficult dogs (that I've seen) having light eyes, rather than all light eyed dogs being difficult.

So the next time I choose a pup for training into a good shooting dog, I won't pick one with light eyes, and probably not a bitch, either. It may just be me/my training/ personality etc. just doesn't suit a certain type of dog, and those types of dogs that I've had, have had light eyes.

We have 4 cockers, all red/lemon coloured, one is open marked so almost white called Molly. 

Molly has the darkest eyes I've ever seen, pools of plain chocolate! and yet she is brown based so her pigment is generally light, i.e very little melanin. I'll try not to get too technical here!!

Our other 3 are - Bebe, golden coloured with dark hazel brown eyes, brown based; and her pups :-

Secret ; Golden, black based with eyes like Molly

Goofy : Deep red, brown based with eyes like his dam Bebe.

Another pup from the same litter, Poppy (belonging to Steph R) has lemon green eyes and her coat is lemon with brown base. I think she is quite shy but biddable.

I personally prefer the darker eyes. However when considering the behavioural characteristics of our group the darker eyed Molly and Secret are by far the most stubborn and wiley pair, less easily trained and far more cunning! From my narrow experience I'd say that a dark eyed bitch is a handful!

Molly's breeder told us that part of his breeding protocol was aimed to always to get a dark eye and it had taken him 20 years to achieve this consistently. It would be interesting to know his opinion in the matter regarding behaviour and eye colour.

Jackie

I'll tell you what Jackie, I'll sennd you my two light eyed ones, and you send me your two dark eyed ones, and we'll see how we get on!

Sorry to come a bit late to this discussion - for some reason my iPad (yes, I'm bragging!) won't let me add messages on this site.

My boy, Dexter (a liver dog), has very light eyes - Morwenna has a great pic of him where she has left the colour only in his eyes.  I can honestly say that he has none of the possible character defects that are associated with this according to the Old Wives Tale.

He also doesn't seem to pass it on - none of his pups have, to date, got light eyes, despite some of the owners wanting them.  His daughter (golden) has really dark eyes.

i have never really liked light eyes, but that is a bit of fallout from showing my vizslas where light eyes are a fault, and I've always considered darker eyes softer looking.  Dexter certainly looks a bit manic with his light eyes some times - but that's probably because he is.  A friend refers to them as "witches eyes".  I like them in Dexter - because I think he's a fab little dog so am completely kennel-blind about him!

He has passed all his eye tests - both physical and DNA - so they obviously don't carry any health issues (for him anyway).

I think it's all down to personal taste - and because we all love the dogs we've got, what our own dogs have is obviously the desired colour!

Kate

Svenk at January 24, 2011 at 5:07 AM

I'll tell you what Jackie, I'll sennd you my two light eyed ones, and you send me your two dark eyed ones, and we'll see how we get on!

Shall I bring her to you, not been to Sweden before!   Maybe your light eyed dogs are related to my dark eyed dogs and that is why they are alike in character and, the eye colour (in this instance) is not a factor!

Jackie

I think the deal with a very light eye is they can have the appearance of a glaring stare, which can be off putting to some folk.

I personally perfer a darker eye with a soft expression, but I'm sorta old school in some ways.

Maybe the sercret lies in that you like your dog and he likes you.

mike