An Australian Shepherd can come with any eye color, including blue eyes on non-merles. None are rare, preferred, worth more than other colors, or considered better. Bottom line: All eye colors are equally acceptable. From the AKC breed standard: “Eye color is brown, blue, amber; or any variation or combination, including flecks and marbling. All eye colors are acceptable in combination with all coat colors.”
Interestingly, an Aussie’s iris can be split or marbled with blue, have concentric rings of color, be monochromatic, or have flecks of darker pigment or flecks of blue. One dog can have eyes of two different colors! One eye might be blue, the other pigmented, or eacy might be different colors but both pigmented.
Blue eyes aren’t limited to merles because of a recessive gene in the breed that produces split blue, or blue eyes in solid colored dogs. As of this writing, it’s thought not to be possible to predict eye color in a planned mating because there are likely multiple genes at play with impact eye color, but it’s probably safe to say that brown eyes are dominant to lighter colored eyes.
Eye color may be more exciting than some breeders like, but from where we stand, it’s one of the things we love about the Aussie!
A fabulous graphic shared by Shelly Hollen back in 2014