How much does a pale eye bother folk?  I see some photos of dogs where they look like goats with pale eyes, and I wonder why it's historically linked with poor temperament and whether there's any evidence of this?

A light eye in a breed which should have dark eyes it often makes them look like they had bird of prey eyes.
From what I understand chocolate Labs should have dark eyes but most I see have very very pale eyes. Is that what you speak of, in Labs?

Any breed really that should have a dark eye, Iv'e seen mentioned a few times that a light eye is associated with a hard mouth as well, possibly old wives tales but you never know if there's some truth mixed in with some lines producing light eyes and having hard mouths.

not heard that saying but guess that would relate to Labs?

I've heard of it with some spaniels as well, so I'm guessing a few gundog breeds.

I’ve never heard of that. I cannot see that there could be a link to temperament. I could see that a dog with light eyes may give a harsher appearance and may get picked on more but on a genetic level I can’t see a link. Can’t see any studies on it. Is it the same people that say a black roof of the mouth makes a good working BC?

It bothers me a lot in my gundog breeds and it spoils the overall soft expression, but it’s cosmetic and I would rather a light eye than some other stuff.

It is just hearsay I've heard over the years, mainly about Labradors and spaniels, but hadn't ever found any truth behind it.  I like an eye colour that doesn't stand out as too pale, simply for aesthetic reasons, but it's always made me wonder why there's the old wives tales.

My first weimaraner had very pale eyes and she used to frighten people when she looked them in the eye.  There is something about a pale eyed dog looking attentively at you that puts the wind up a lot of people.  (ps she was a complete softy!)  Incidentally I don't think she had very good eye sight so she did tend to stare when wanted a good look at something

Years ago now, we'd sometimes see overly light eyes in Bassets, usually coupled with a round eye both of which gave a very hard, alien expression which isn't, thankfully, seen as often in well-bred Bassets now.  Temperamentally this didn't affect the hound although that kind of breeding could well have produced untypical temperaments too but it had nothing to do with eye colour specifically.  The darker the better for me - with the Basset - and ditto really with Whippets although some of them do have quite light eyes.   Happily mine doesn't.

It depends on what the breed standard says mine calls for a nice dark eye

My breed should have dark eyes, and I dislike light eyes. As has been said they have a hard expression.

Blue eyed dogs give me the heeby jeebies. Can't understand pet people wanting it in sled dog breeds.

In my breed blue eyes are linked to an increased incidence of congenital deafness, and so they are considered a major fault and no reputable breeder breeds from them. (In the US they are allowed in the breed standard and they have about double the incidence of deafness that we do in the UK). Other than that, eye colour is linked to spot colour; black spotted dogs are supposed to have dark brown eyes (lighter brown eyes look 'starey') and liver spotted dogs will have amber eyes (lacking the gene for black pigmentation they can never have dark brown eyes). However there doesn't seem to be any genuine link to temperament, more in our perception that dark eyes are 'softer' and we assume the dog is soft-natured as well.

Growing up with working Border Collies, most Farmers would avoid a pale eyed or blue eyed dog on physical appearance.  They were not aggressive or hard mouthed but recognizably different to their Canine groups and Sheep.  It was claimed they were also harder to train and it was found later that they could only react to hand signals as many were deaf.

I always gave to laugh when I see comments like blue eyed sheepdogs cannot work sheep/livestock & that shepherds/farmers avoid them.

A very famous dog in the sheepdog world had 2 blue eyes & had no trouble working large flocks of sheep on hills or lowlands. Anyone with any knowledge of working sheepdogs will know of him, of course, as he was a stunning dog to watch work either at trials or even better on a large hill gathering. He had very light blue eyes. A powerful intelligent driving dog too boot

Deafness in working sheepdogs/BCs is NOT solely related to eye colour. A friend of mine has just adopted a normal brown eyes puppy that is totally deaf

Anne R Smith:  I'm sure no sane person would dispute a fabulous working collie with blue eyes who was able to work large flocks of sheep.  I was merely voicing my experience as a Farmers Daughter and advice given relating to pale/blue eyed collies in general.  There are hundreds of breeds with hundreds of pale/blue eyed litters - not all will be deaf, I agree