Breed Information

What is a Beardie?

The Bearded Collie is a medium sized Scottish herding dog with a long, shaggy coat and an exuberant, intelligent personality. Nowadays most Beardies are pets but they are still used for herding in Britain and Europe, as their style of working is particularly suited to cattle and hill sheep.

Beardies can be found in four colours (slate, blue, brown and fawn), with or without white markings. All colours fade as the dog matures and then returns to a darker shade at around 3 years of age.

Underneath the double coat, a Beardie has a well angulated, natural body shape and moderate bone. The outer coat has a somewhat harsh texture whilst the dense undercoat is soft; this would protect him from the elements if he was working all day.

It is safe to say, that once discovered there will always be space for a Beardie at your side and in your heart.

Beardie Temperament

Beardies appeal to those owners who enjoy an intelligent, responsive and energetic dog. They are self confident, boisterous and agile and easily bored. They thrive on human companionship and can become destructive if left alone all day. They are known to give a good bark!

Generally they love children and other animals, but as a herding dog, they may chase and nip when excited so play with very young children should be supervised. They also have lots of coat which may be pulled at by young children which is unfair for any dog.

The breed is very trainable and indeed they are most versatile and compete in many disciplines, including agility, herding, and obedience. They do not respond well to harsh training methods, being very sensitive to human moods and behaviour inconsistencies. Firm, confident and kind reward based training with clear communication will result in a very engaging and amenable companion. As lateral thinkers they will not always be predictable and programmable and a sense if humour is recommended for a Beardie owner!