Glass Eye-Cull or Not?

[liontracker]

Seems a though I have heard about a lot more glass eyes in the blues than ever before.
One guy says in Guy Ormistons' book it caims the glass eye comes from the Goodman strain of fox hound. Another guy claims it comes from the "cow dog" running with the blue females at old Elbert Vaughns place. Another says Smokey River Diamond Jim.

Cull or no Cull?

[Brady Davis]

I have had Catahoulas in the past that were some crackers who all had bright blue glass, cracked glass (half/half) and other mixes such as one glass one brown. If I would have culled them I would have culled some great dogs....JMO

That said, I do think every breed is different, in catahoulas, you cull based on the amount of white they have on their head. If they have white ears, face and predominately white fur, they and their offspring stand a very high chance of being deaf...Obviously in other breeds not the case....

Good question, I wonder if there are any genetics experts who can weigh in on this?

[blueticker78]

I would say that if they have vision in that eye then there ability is all that matters

[calblu]

Has anyone had vision problems with blue eye(s)? I've never heard of it and I've had several born in my litters. It's deafness you need to watch for, but I don't think it's in very many lines. Either that or nobody can tell (especially with deaf in only 1 ear) or will admit to it!

[driftwood blue]

All depends on what you are trying to accomplish.. for a hunting dog a single glass eye does not hurt a thing... I have seen some real great ones.
Elbert Vaughn stated many times that it came in thru the Grover Hyde stock which came in varied colors... one cannot question that Elbert bred some of the top hounds over a longer span than anyone.
that being said, if you can get your hands on the writings of J.Richard McDuffie, study all of his writings on the matter.
like calblu said, there is a definate link between the Blue eyes and deafness /partial deafness... I have seen in the 60's a hound that had 2 blue eyes that was stone cold deaf.. out of littermates - the female had a glass eye--- made an outstanding cooner but totally independent.... By the same token there was one fellow I knew in Arkansas that was breeding for the Glass eyes.. and as far as I know did not have the deafness pop up.


so if your plans were to use it for breeding stock, the answer would be no..
as far as I know most strains of Blues have produced some ... some breeders just eliminated them PDQ...

[redhoundsman]

Many breeds of dogs have brown, hazel or even yellow eyes, but there are also some breeds that are more prone to blue eyes, commonly referred to as glass eyes. The breeds most commonly associated with glass eyes include Australian Shepherds, Blue Heelers, Alapaha Blue Blood Bulldogs, Catahoulas, Siberian Huskies, Corgies, Dachshunds and Shetland Sheepdogs. Any other dog breed could potentially have a blue eye or glass eye, but in many breeds the rare blue color is considered a disqualification in the show ring, but does not mean that the dog cannot be registered. Glass eyes do not indicate damage to the eye and there is no indication that the dog is not able to see equally well through any colored eye, despite many myths to the contrary. There is no breed standard that only allows for blue eyes, but it is favored in many of the breeds by breeders looking for flash in their breeding line. More than likely, the blue eyes in hounds comes from an infusion of catahoulas in the bloodline many years ago.

The issue of partial deafness or blindness shows up in relation to coat-color genetics. Merle is a color combination in dogs’ coats, which also produces blue eyes. It is a solid base color (usually red/brown or black) with lighter blue/gray or reddish patches, which gives a mottled or uneven speckled effect. All white or mainly white dogs with blue eyes have a higher incidence of health issues, like an albino. They were too strongly bred for the merle gene, which is normally recessive. In the hound world, blue eyes can crop up in any line and it is extremely rare in affecting a dog's ability or causing health problems. Knowledgeable breeders who want to produce merle (blue-eyed) puppies mate a merle with a non-merle dog; roughly half the puppies will be merles without the risk of vision or hearing defects. A genetic test can be conducted on a particular dog indicating the prevalence of the merle gene. The answer is, yes, you can breed and produce pups with blue eyes that have absolutely no problems. Some people really like the looks of the blue eyes. Others are indifferent, as long as the dog hunts.

I have had one and seen some excellent dogs with one blue eye (and one with 2). Knowing many cattle ranchers, I have seen a number of heelers and australian shepherds with 2 blue eyes and they were healthy and excellent cattle-punchers.

[calblu]

[liontracker]

Thank you for contacting United Kennel Club.

According to the UKC breed standard the dog should have two dark brown eyes. Having a blue eye would be considered a fault but it is not a disqualification. Because it is not a disqualification you would still be able to register the dog with us and compete in hunts.

Thank you again for your interest in UKC.

Registration Department
United Kennel Club, Inc.
www.ukcdogs.com
cah

[calblu]

Only BBOA can change the standard to DQ or fully accept blue eyes.

Below is a dog that had one blue eye and was a UKC show Ch. The owner of a bluetick he beat in a show one time wrote a letter to UKC complaining about how the win should be taken away because of his blue eye. One off-color eye isn't much of a penalty on an otherwise nice dog, though judge's who don't like it may penalize it more heavily than it should be.



This was Tiny's dog when I met him. He was never used in our breeding program, though considering performance alone he probably should have been. Neither of us has shown a blue eyed dog since.

[liontracker]

[Brady Davis]

My vote, with my very limited experience is yes, it should be bred

[plottpappaw]

i'm not an expert on blue dogs but before i was strictly a plott man i had a northern blue hammer male and female out of dave deans stock. I raised one litter of pups and had one pup out of ten with one blue eye! He turned out to be be a fine bear hound! Thats just one pup tho! I myself wouldn't cull them until i knew what i kind of hound its going to be! The ukc breed standard says eyes should be dark brown and no lighter than light brown

[calblu]

[plottpappaw]

I have very limited knowledge of the blue dogs but my male was a great grandson to hammer 9 and my female was a grand daughter to jet 5! The one pup i had with a blue eye was fine! But with limited background i would be afraid to make an atempt at an educated guess but i am learning alot from this! Thank you all

[calblu]

That dog above was a son of Hammer X and a VII grandson on the bottom side. X (don't know his call name) produced several awesome California bear dogs and we're excited to be bringing in a X great-great-granddaughter this year. That blood up close on X is hard to find anymore!

When I got the deaf pups in our very first litter in 1991 (after many years of looking for my foundation dogs) it was not only a crushing blow, but it seemed like I was also the only one it had ever happened to! Nobody could tell me anything. Not even the specialist on deafness at the LA college.