I have been shooting w/ a Canon A85 model camera for about a year now and about 80% of the time I get red eye especially w/ blonde colored friends. I am sure it has something to do with the pigment in the eye. I had heard someone say that it happens alot mostly because the flash is close to the lens or something like that. Can anyone shed some light on it.
I almost always get the red eye or alien eye w/ the dogs when shooting indoors.
Outdoors the camera does fairly well http://members.cox.net/boostn/

Red eye is caused by the flash, so it usually only happens with photos taken indoor. Red eye in people is fairly easy to fix and most photo programs have a red eye fix, that is really easy to use. With dogs you usually get that blue/green eye. It's not quite as easy as most program don't have an easy fix built into them. You can still fix it, but it is usually much more labour intensive.

Thank you Jan. I was curious if others have the same problem. I know there are things to help out like more light ect. but I was wondering if say the Canon Rebel is any better at taking pictures w/out getting the red/green eye. I have used several programs to ger the red out but it's a pain to do each one that way.

Yes, usually red eyes happen because the flash is close to the lens.
The Canon Rebel should do better because its built-in flash is located much higher than the lens compared to your A85. It would be even better if you use a flashgun.
You can compare the red eyes with the A85 and the Rebel XT at
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_a85-review/
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/digital_rebel_xt-review/index.shtml

With the Rebel, it is also possible to increase the ISO without losing much in photo quality and to avoid flash.

Thank you for the information. :)