When a puppy is born their brain mass is about 8% of its final size. Their eyes, ears and nose pretty much do not work yet. They have some mobility and they are able to suckle (if they learn it real quick before the opportunity fades, but that's a whole other story). Their functions at birth are minimal. Having more functions would require a bigger brain, thus would produce a puppy with a larger head, which would then be problematic during the birthing. The brain is only just large enough to get the puppy started in life.
If you compare breed-to-breed and even wolf to domestic dog they all look almost exactly alike at birth. There is a reason for that, that size, shape, abilities or lack of, works! Nothing more, nothing less. In addition, the similarity has to do with the fact that they are all coming from the same type of environment a mother's womb. It is when they get out in the world do the variations start to express themselves.
What does this have to do with hair over the eyes?
Puppies' eyes are closed at birth. They start to open at around 4 days. They actually start to see around 2 to 3 weeks. There is no hair around or over the eyes (just go look at ANY canine puppy baby pictures). This is so that when the eyes open they can start to register the visual information and develop their brain without obstruction. As their body and brain develops the eyes continue to "do their job" of sending visual signals to the brain. They learn specific things such as, if I see steps, I will either be able to walk up or down them. If I see a dog bearing his teeth, have his hackles up, or is standing directly in front of me, I had better start sending some good signals to avert a fight. If I see a butterfly, I can pounce on it. If I see my food in a dish, I can run over and eat it. There are so many things that the dog sees and learns how to react or not react from that visual information.
There are many types of dogs that tend to grow hair around their eyes and eventually obstruct the dogs' vision. If you read some of the pure breed standards, they will often mention that a dog breed has this hair over their eyes for various reasons "protect from bad weather", "protect from the sun" ... . Nevertheless, in reality, there is NO dog breed that SHOULD have hair over his or her eyes (gasp, did she really say that???). This is romancing the dog breed and it is a big hunk of marketing to appeal to human desires. It just does not make sense from an evolutionary reason, for an environmental reason or for a health reason.
If you look to the actual working livestock guarding dogs of Italy or any other place where dogs are utilized to guard sheep, these dogs rarely have hair over their eyes. What good would it serve to have a dog that could not even see where he was walking let alone potential predators? In addition, the risk of damage to the eyes by the hair is problematic. Actual working Shepard's do tend to avoid dogs that have hair over their eyes. They want dogs that can SEE where it is walking and be able to see to do his required job. And they do not want to nor have the time to groom their working dogs.
Healthy puppies have sight; they learn how to respond to their environment utilizing sight. This is now imprinted into their brains. If indeed a dog was best suited to have a mass of hair over their eyes, then why didn't Mother Nature just put that mass of hair over the eyes to start? Because it does not make sense for the survival of the animal! They have the sight so that they can develop a lot of information to assure that they survive. They need to see potential danger, they need to see food, they need to see the environment; they need to see everything!
When I do consults on dog behavior with rather upset owners, they sometimes tell me about how nice and sweet their dog use to be, and then "one day, all of a sudden, without warning ... " the dog starts to be jumpy, reactive, stressed, fearful, etc. I can't count on my hand how many times I was able to say "cut the hair around the dogs eyes" and then call me back later and let me know how things are going. Sure enough, a week later I get "the dog is great, he is happy, he is back to his old self!" This happens a lot. People are even on the verge of rehoming their now "insane" dog because they did not stop and think about this one little easy fix.
Over a year ago, I was flown a doodle that was deemed dangerous by owners and several vets. I was at the airport ready to pick up this monster dog (which the owners required me to sign a waiver saying I wouldn't sue them if the dog mauled me.) Brought the dog home and just watched him for about an hour. The dog was in distress no doubt, he was growling a bit, he was very cautious with every step, he was sniffing like crazy and his ears were pivoting around like a radar. I could not stand it any longer ... I got out the scissors and risked life and limb to cut his hair away from his eyes. Clip, clip, clip and boom -- there were some beautiful eyes. I think that there was a bit of a sigh when he looked at me. He was not a monster dog; he was a dog that could not see a darn thing. (He's fine now, didn't maul me to death which is a pretty good thing.)
So, even if you do not do your own grooming. Get yourself some scissors and keep those eyes unobstructed - always. Totally unobstructed. It may be cute to have all that fluffy stuff around and over their eyes, but it is not cute from the dogs' perspective and it is not cute when they start to show reactive behaviors or eye infections. Defy the dog world, stand up for doodledum everywhere and say, "Our dogs shall always have clear vision!"
by Beth Line, director of IDOG.biz.
