The Border Collie is one of the most popular dog breeds. Considered to be the most intelligent puppies in the world, they are also not far behind in terms of beauty. The black and white Border Collie comes to mind when we talk about the breed, but did you know that there is a variety of coat colors? If you are curious to better understand the color pattern of the Border Collie, we explain everything below.

Border Collie: breed colors and their variations

The wide variety of colors of the Border Collie only makes the animal even more special: there is something for everyone! The tone of the coat is established by genetics, but a common feature in all variations is the all-white coat with spots of a certain color. Therefore, it is not possible to find an all-black Border Collie or an all-brown Border Collie, for example.

In this way, we can think about the variations of the coloration. The color of the coat will be defined from three standards: solid colors, tricolors and merles colors. The possibilities in solid colors are:

• Border Collie white with black
• White and gray Border Collie
• Red and white Border Collie
• Chocolate and white Border Collie

The Border Collie will always have a white stripe that runs from the muzzle to the top of the head, separating the left and right sides of the face. Another well-known marking is the so-called "pirate", in which the animal has one side of the head coloured and the other white.

Border Collie colors: understand how the tricolor coat occurs

The 3-color Border Collie is also very well known. In the tricolor coat type, two colors are combined with white, unlike solid colors, in which only one color makes the counterpoint with white. One of the interesting possibilities of tricolor coat is the brindle Border Collie. This animal has the three colors with stripes on the body that make it look like a tiger.Border Collie tricolor can have variations in brown, black, chocolate, blue, lilac and even diversify when it has the merle gene.

Is there an all white Border Collie?

Knowing that the white coat is always found in this breed of dog, you may wonder if there is such a thing as an all-white Border Collie. In fact, although there is such a coat possibility, the all-white Border Collie is not recognized by the International Cynological Federation (FCI). This is because this color only occurs in the breed from the crossing of two dogs with the merle gene. This type ofCrossbreeding is not recommended, because puppies of two merle dogs can present several health problems, such as eye deformation, anophthalmia (no eye formation), pupil luxation, liver problems, among others.

The merle gene is a genetic specificity that changes the shade of the coat and eyes of the puppy. The merle coat in the Border Collie can have variations such as:

• Blue merle Border Collie
• Border Collie red merle
• Border Collie merle tricolor

The shades lilac, seal, slate, sable can also have variations with the merle gene. This alteration can not only occur with the Border Collie, but also with dogs of breeds such as Shetland Shepherd, French Bulldog and others - being present in many herding dogs.