My parents and I lived on the farm, raising some show collies and they are great with chickens that we had. We also had them trained so they know they dont bother the chickens and herd them back to the barn.
Temperment are great but I am leery of tri colored collies, since we had two of them and they were nutty ones LOL! One male, he was the show dog and gets car sick bad and always looking for a fight with un netered male dog we had. The other one was a spayed grump that she would just goes nuts when the thunder and lightening shows up and boy, she trembles so bad just like her half brother did. Put two of them together, they would literally make the bed shake! Its been so long ago since we had those dogs and my parents and sis loved them to pieces but never again they will ever get a tricolored collie. I would not either.
The sable and blue merles are great and never had any problems.
Now, I am not saying that tris are all bad but it could be the fact that bloodlines do show up since both half siblings (same mother) have inherited bad traits from their father who was a tri from a lady up in Chicago, a well known breeder back in the 70s and 80s.
If at any count, stay away from Hanover I Am Legend and Plutos Plantinum since both lines had a very HEAVY tendency of behavior problems and skin problems. I am certain dedicated breeders nowadays with those lines have worked hard to weed out this problem particularly with the skin problems...we had to have the collies DNA checked to see which parent carried these genes and boy, the breeders of those dogs had a lot of work to do. This lady from Chicago, the only name I can remember right off hand is Carol but forgotten her last name was a good breeder to work with but in hindsight, she didnt see what she needed to do to clean up the lines or work to eliminate the problem gene out of the dogs and she didnt go very far after my parents got out of breeding, showing and traning collies altogether.
I am sorry to say there is NO such thing as a "miniature collie" however you can have a mix between a Sheltie and a Collie as parents but never "miniature Collie"....some Collie purists would frown at that LOL! An oversized Sheltie is more like it.
I must agree that some breeders would "breed" the brains out of the Collie to get just the "looks"...its so sad to see a Collie can not herd or has NO inclination to express interest in herding or moving from his spot to herd. That is the same for Cocker Spaniels and certain herding breeds. An all around dog in the herding and non sporting group or any group, should express what his breed are designed for, hunting, sporting, herding, events and public services (shepherds, labs, etc).
Critters, you got one beautiful blue merle and I do like her expression! By any chance, does she got blue eyes?
Sometimes I pick my battles with the big time breeders about markings like Lassie (a real collie should not have a blaze or any white markings but who cares!), china blue eyes on merle dogs or dogs with merle breedings should be accepted in the show ring, and the sable merle (they are beautiful) which the CCA disqualified as a strange color or unacceptable color (jeez! we had a sable merle grump that was soooooooooo goreous and got everything perfect for her to be shown but alas, its her color that prevented us to show her but she went on to get her CD and CDX titles). Besides with all that political BS going on with the CCA, my parents and I left the collie world for good and we just get collies from private breeders from good sources, not puppy mills or people that are unknowledgeable about collies.
Just to be forewarned, be sure when you get a puppy, breedable or pet, make sure you get the eye exams!!!! My mother made that mistake TWICE from a backyard farmer and private breeders that said their dogs are "normal eyed" and the puppies that my mom bought came out BLIND! Oh boy, the U of I College , hadreport the breeders for breeding bad eyed dogs or "carrier dogs" and I hope that really improved the OFA title or certification that the parents have been checked. We had to put those poor puppies down, it was really heartbreaking and devasting to our family as well. They also put those puppy breeders out of business as well.
I dont know if you guys got your collies' eyes checked but if the parents are OFA checked, then it should be OK. It does happen sometimes but glad in the past twenty years, you dont see too many blind collie puppies but only the puppy mills or uninformed puppy breeders.
The sable mom to be looks like she got some Hanover lines in her...it was her coloring and expressions...I love that mahogany sable color she got and its rare to find that color! Her expression is sweet.
All dogs in the picture have "tulip" ears, that is a good trait to have. Some ugly collies do have prick ears and looks like a Belgian Manolis LOL! Dont worry if they do "prick" if you are not into showing. (I dont like the methods for their ears to make them look like that but some of it would be genetics as well LOL)
So good luck in finding one! They are hard to find for sure! Tris dont come easy than sables. I wish I can post any Collie pics that we had but the comparison would be too drastic and it would take the meaning out of this forum about Collies.
