Collie

Temperament

Collies carry maxed-out trainability alongside genuine gentleness, and the breed rates at the top of the scale for how it handles both kids and other household pets — a temperament shaped by centuries of close cooperative work with shepherds and, more recently, by decades of deliberate selection for a calm, trustworthy companion disposition in show and pet lines. The breed's herding instinct is real but generally milder and less intense than the Border Collie's or Australian Cattle Dog's, making the Collie a comparatively easier working breed for families without an actual flock to manage.

Living with a Collie

An hour of daily exercise is typical for a Collie, considerably less demanding than its herding-group relatives. Grooming needs depend on which of the breed's two coat varieties a dog has — the long-haired 'rough' Collie, the more famous type from Lassie, needs regular brushing several times a week, while the 'smooth' Collie variety needs meaningfully less. A hereditary eye disorder unique to collie-type breeds, unsurprisingly named Collie eye anomaly, is worth screening for directly in a puppy's parents, and MDR1 drug sensitivity, a mutation notably common in herding breeds that causes dangerous reactions to certain medications, is documented in the breed and worth testing for via a simple, inexpensive DNA panel before any new medication. Blue merle Collies, in particular, carry an elevated risk of congenital deafness and eye abnormalities when two merle-patterned parents are bred together, which is why reputable breeders avoid merle-to-merle pairings.

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