Eye of the Shepherd - Page 1

I like eyes that are as close to the standard as possible. A dog with a black mask should have the darkest brown or black eyes, a dog with a lighter mask can get away with dark brownish red eyes.
Yellow or amber eyes are a falt.
 
6) Eyes

The eyes are of medium size, almond shaped, somewhat slanting and not protruding.
The color of the eyes should blend with the color of the coat.
They should be as dark as possible.
They should have a lively, intelligent and self-confident expression.

This is a eye chart for Rottweilers, but can also be used for GSD's.
1a thru 3a - Premium Breeding
1a thru 4a - Breeding Approval
4b thru 6 - Forbidden to breed

Many breeders and judges would say that 4a and below are faulty for GSD's




This is the AKC version of eye shapes, I cannot find a SV version.
 
 

almond shaped, very dark.

The standard says as dark as possible, but I personally like that medium brown color... looks more striking, in my opinion. Plus I have a thing about being able to see my pets pupils... black eyes on anything are just creepy.

Dark as possible, but still able to tell it's brown. My new girl's eyes are dark enough to look black although I think they are really a very dark brown. I have a friend who has a nice bicolor girl that I really like, except she's got really light eyes. It's such a bummer because it just kind of ruins the look of her beautiful, nearly all black face.

My preference is no too dark, and yes, agree with Dawulf, black is just horrible, expressionless.  I do think too much emphasis is put on dark eye colour in the showring.  The natural colour of north European herding dogs is light to medium brown.

Medium brown or 2b on the chart is my preference. I like to be able to 'see' (pardon the pun) the eye, not have it virtually disappear into a dark mask.

My oldest GSD, Zane has medium amber eyes which I think are amazing to look at because he has a dark mask. So there is a little bit of contrast there.

My younger male GSD, Yiannis is much lighter (coat colour) although he he also black & tan. He has very pale amber eyes which, although I believe is considered a fault here, I think they look really nice. Other people can't NOT look at him because of his eye colour.

My youngest GSD, Jenzi (WL sable) has extremely dark amber eyes which because of her makrings and colouring, make her look very wolf-like.

TBH I don't really mind what colour their eyes are. They're GSDs and therefore hit my soft spot everytime.

Some say that bi-colors tend to have oval eys, not almomd.

Is this true?