The cleverest dog
It is widely rated the most intelligent breed. One collie, Chaser, learned the names of more than a thousand toys.
Big dogs · A lot of time and space
Border collie
Sheepdog · from the Scottish borders
A lean, quick dog, usually black with a white collar, chest, blaze and tail tip, and a long silky coat.
- Size
- 46 to 56cm at the shoulder; 12 to 20kg
- Lives for
- 12 to 15 years
- Suits
- Very active people who want a dog to work with
Runs after you low and fast, then drops and stares. Move your pointer and see.
Good to know
Six things about the border collie
It herds with a stare
A collie controls sheep by creeping low and fixing them with a hard stare, called the eye.
Fifty miles a day
A working sheepdog may cover fifty miles in a day on the hill.
One famous ancestor
Nearly every border collie descends from a dog called Old Hemp, born in Northumberland in 1893.
Worked by whistle
Shepherds direct their dogs from far away with whistled commands: left, right, lie down, come by.
It will herd anything
Without sheep, a collie may try to round up children, bicycles or the cat.
The real thing
Photos of the border collie
_showing_off_his_doggy_bandana.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
Looking after one
It needs two hours or more of running and thinking every day. Agility, flyball and trick training suit it perfectly. Brush two or three times a week.
Before you get one
A bored collie invents its own jobs, and you will not like them. It is a superb dog for the right home and a poor choice for a quiet one.
Keep going