The United Kennel Club breed standard for the Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dog (what the AKC simply refers to as the Catahoula Leopard Dog) states that eyes in this breed may be any color or combination of colors without preference – and they are that in spades!  While the eyes may be any color or combination of colors (and often are), the National Association of Louisiana Catahoulas, Inc. indicates that glass eyes are preferred.

What is a glass eye?

This is a bluish white eye with a cracked glaze appearance that doesn’t quite look real. The dog in the photo below has two glass eyes (sometimes referred to as double glass eyes), but it’s also common for a Catahoula to have just one glass eye, the other being a different color such as brown, amber, or green, and in that case, it’s called being “bi-eyed,” or, scientifically speaking, having heterochromia iridum. Heterochromia is the result of an excess or lack of melanin in one eye.

Image found on Pinterest and happily credited upon receipt of information

A glass eye may also have colors within the blue, or be half of one color and half of another, and these are referred to as “cracked glass” eyes, or simply, “cracks, though other people sometimes call them marbled glass eyes. When brown eyes with glass spots or blue eyes with brown spots occur, these are called “spots.” Grey eyes are usually cracked glass eyes of blue and green which gives the dog’s eyes a grayish appearance.

Catahoula’s are known for having heterochromia which can result in a number of different eye variations. Glass eyes are also the result of the merle gene in which the most minor ocular manifestation is a blue iris (or irides). The blue may also be as an ‘inclusion’ or as a partial segment of another wise brown eye,  but know that a blue iris isn’t proof of the presence of the merle gene since it may also be expressed in dogs carrying the piebald gene such as the Dalmatian.

Some sources suggest that there’s some evidence to support some light sensitivity in dogs with heterochromia, especially in the lighter colored eye, and this is because lighter colored eyes have less melanin (pigment) which is what helps to block the light from moving straight through the iris to hit the retina. Heterochromia itself isn’t painful.

Putting science aside, we are fond of the old legend that says heterochromatic dogs can see heaven and earth at the same time.

Image appears with the kind consent of the AKC