Border Collie Appearance

In general, Border Collies are medium-sized dogs without extreme physical characteristics and a moderate amount of coat. Their double coats can be anywhere from slick to lush, and can come in many colours, although black and white is by far the most common. Black tricolour (black/tan/white), red and white, red tricolour (red/tan/white) also occur regularly, with other colours such as blue crème and yellow white, red merle, blue merle, "Australian red"/gold, and sable seen less frequently. Solid Black is also seen.

Eye colour varies from deep brown to amber or blue with occasionally one eye of each colour, usually seen with merles. The ears of the Border Collie are also highly variable — some have fully erect ears, some fully dropped and others are semi-erect (similar to that of the Rough Collie). Although working Border Collie handlers sometimes have superstitions about the appearance of their dogs (handlers do not prefer mostly white dogs due to some genetic problems found in Border Collies.), in general a dog's appearance is considered to be irrelevant. It is considered much more useful to identify a working Border Collie by its attitude and ability than by its looks.