Eyes - Allevamento d'Egitto

Eyes

Some fanciers consider eyes which are not homogeneously dark in color to be a disqualifying flaw.
The most widespread belief (still today) in the Bergamo area and among the shepherds who raise herds is that the blue eye is an essential characteristic of the Bergamo Shepherd Dog.
Leaving out all controversies, and wishing only to gain a greater knowledge of this dog, we believe both beliefs to hold true, for if the blue eye cannot be considered a special quality it is certainly typical of this breed.
The herdsmen that first selected the breed, though in an elementary manner, sensing that which accurate scientific experiments have demonstrated just recently, that is that the shape cannot guarantee anything in regards to heredity, have based themselves solely on criteria of selection concerning aptitude, fixing the main characteristics of behavior, even through incrossing, which allowed to pass on a certain trait, in a dog with a depigmented iris. They proved the validity of their choices and have never noticed serious collateral defects. In fact, they considered the blue eye essential.
Excessive consanguinity has surely had negative effects both on pigmentation and on reproductive ability, impoverishing further the breed, but it has also allowed to fix for good the main traits of the Bergamo Shepherd Dog.
In their language, called "Gai", the word "gagiól" (gazzuolo) is a synonym for "pretty eye", which is proof of how they greatly appreciated the blue eye. If it holds true that, launched towards the construction of the perfect dog, the depigmented iris might seem a flaw that the careful breeder should try, where possible, to reduce to the minimum, carefully considering the breeding possibilities, the subjects with blue eyes are surely endowed with a valuable genetic background that must not be lost.

              

In conclusion, reporting above all that which we have experienced directly, we can state that the blue-eyed subject must be considered, from a physical point a view, identical to the others, while as far as reproduction is concerned the breeder must choose very carefully the partner, and must seek him/her among those subjects which are brown-eyed and strongly pigmented, for if two blue-eyed subjects are mated the chance of there being blind pups, which usually is null, is unfortunately higher.
Once -so a tale goes- when the Bergamo Shepherd Dog was normally used, and there weren't problems regarding its proliferation, selection called for the elimination of black subjects, perhaps because they were too easy to sight on the snow (the risk of invasions was unfortunately still a ver serious one), but at times even because, influenced by superstition, they were believed to be sons of the devil. Even this type of selection has contributed, in time, to the pigmentation deficiency of the coat of the Bergamo Shepherd Dog and, in order to bring back the color, the first thing that needed to be done was to retrieve the black-colored subjects.
The meaning of the tale is quite easy to grasp: we must be careful in excluding certain subjects: opinions and standards change in time and perhaps fifty years from now the subjects that today are refused will be the most sought after and we might regret having refused them.
It's interesting to stop for a moment on this aspect and notice how the well-known researcher Fiorenzo Fiorone, in his book on canine breeds edited in 1955, acknowledged completely the farmer tradition and, in describing the Bergamo Shepherd Dog, he states that the dog is 63 cm tall at the withers, that the blue eye is admitted in light-colored subjects, and that 'Zaino' black subjects are to be proscribed.