I don't agree with the statement alot of chocolates use to have bad eye color. Think the reverse is true. My lines are over 35 years old and no light eyes. I breed choc to choc alot, have bred choc to yellow before. The wild eyed chocolates where we live came from field bred or those just in it for the money. You need to know what you are working with. And light eyes have also come down from black lines. So like I said, try to learn what is back in the pedigree. That goes for the pigment also.

Don't think my question has been clear. First point: if a dog bbee works as tabula rasa he could not determine whether the offspring would have dark/light brown eyes and dark/light coat, right? My bbee bitch comes from a line with dark eyes but do not think it will be the determinant of the eye color of the puppies. Therefore the color quality would be determined by the dominant dog. If the dominant dog is genetically from lines with clear eyes descendants have clear eyes, etc. The bbee girl have no role in determining the shade of eyes/coat.

Perhaps it would help if you could explain what you mean by tabula rasa, in this context. Since the dog in question is known to be bbee, he/she is not a blank slate - there are known genetic influences and each parent will contribute one half of the genetic make-up of any get. So - light/dark eyes, etc will and can be influenced by either parent.

What do you mean by tabula rasa?

Here is my doubt. My bbee bitch comes from a line of chocolate dogs with beautiful dark eyes. My fear is that by using a clear-eyed bbEE male that genetic trait will stand out because he is dominant. I used "tabula rasa" as a metaphor of empiricism - only know the result through trial and error - and because I think in relation to genetic color, she would be like a blank slate.