A Blue Eyed Dog Thing...

"... one of the most dangerous things I know, has blue eyes and a heartbeat"-Unknown 

Our beautiful aussie Allie

Meet Our Blue Eyed Girls 

Allie, Blu, and Cassie all have a special place on the ranch and share a common trait, blue eyes. Allie was purchased two years ago as an addition to the Aussie breeding program, and has the sweetest most loyal heart. Allie is one of the best babysitters and has the biggest heart shown through her two piercing blue eyes. Allie is considered a “BET.” 
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Blu, was one of the original breeding bitches of the ranch and comes from a kernel based out of Arizona with great herding instinct. Blu loves to be on the go and have something to do. Blu is the hardest worker and when she looks up with her bright blue eyes you can’t help but fall in love. 

Cassie is one of the new girls on the block with one amber eye and one baby blue. Cassie is a 10-Bar-Y ranch bred through and through out of our foundation bitch, Jadis by our foundation stud, Spur. Cassie is a pleaser, with great conformation and a bright future with success. 

10-Bar-Y Castin' Kisses "Cassie"

Blue Eyes Background

Having blue eyed Aussies in both the merle and tri colors has sparked our interest in learning more about the blue eyed gene. In recent years the popularity of dogs with blue eyes has increased dramatically. Blue eyes among Australian Shepherds is not a new concept, in fact there is a Native American legend that refers to the breed of Aussies with blue eyes as the “Ghost Eye Dog” and thought them to be sacred. 
Other breeds outside the Aussie breed have also been known to have blue eyes in either both eyes or in at least one. The most popular of these breeds being the Siberian Husky with the Australian Shepherd in second. So what is the reason for this Blue Eyed gene?

10-Bar-Y Hardts Blu Thunder "Blu"

Blue Eyed Gene

For years many people have thought that blue eyes in dogs is a sure sign of blindness, however blue eyes are not. Blue eyes in dogs have three ways they are most commonly seen or portrayed. The first is the merle gene which we see in Blu and Cassie. The Second is a genetic and rare blue eye gene present in some breeds like the Australian Shepherd and the Siberian Husky, which is what Allie has. The last reason we see blue eyes is a lack of pigment in the dog’s eye. There is also a possibility for an albino dog to have blue eyes but is a much rarer occurrence. ​

Jackie Aussies Allie "Allie"

Blue Eyed Tri (BET)

“BET” stands for Blue Eyed Tri, which is what our female Allie is. In 2018 Paw Print Genetics released a statement regarding BET Lined Aussies. In a concentrated testing effort, Paw Print was looked into 38 different BET dogs to see if their blue eyes had the same mutation as a merle colored dog. They found that it depended on the dog, some had a merle gene and in fact others had their own gene. Siberian Huskies are some of the only dogs known to have blue eyes without a merle mutation, so this study opened up some new possibilities. Faithwalk Aussies did a post about the BET lines fad, one of the most important things, in my opinion, touched on was to do your research and look at the overall dog, not just the blue eye. We love our blue eyed dogs and hope this information was helpful. 

Past Merle puppy with the amber and blue eyes

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