Description: The Collie is a large dog, that is muscular, but sleek, and they are a strong dog. The skull is flat at the top, the head is wedge shaped. The muzzle is rounded, sloping downwards to the black nose. The overall facial look is slender. Their teeth should meet in a scissor bite. The eyes are oval and medium-sized, and are, most commonly, dark brown in colour, except the blue merles, which may have blue eyes. The Collie breed has petite ears and these are three fourths erect with the tips of the ear folded forward. Dogs stand, 24 to 26 inches in height, with the bitches, 22 to 24 in height. Dogs are slightly heavier in weight, being 60 to 75 pounds with bitches being 50 to 65 pounds. The body is moderately longer than their height.

The Collie breed has straight legs. The tail is in good proportion to the body, and is carried low with some upwards swirl at the tip. There are two coat varieties, smooth and a rough. The rough coat is long and plentiful and all over its body whiles on its head, there is a shorter coat which is also seen on the legs. On the neck, we see a cascading mane going around the neck and chest, this is straight and the longest hair we see on this dog. The smooth coat has short hair of about 1 inch all over the body. Both varieties come in white and tan, tricolour of black, sable and white, there is also the merle whose colours are white with sable, tri colours or blue.

History: The origins of this dog are a little muddled, but what is known for sure is that this dog has been a working dog in Scotland for centuries; the Collie was mainly used as a herding dog and was smaller in appearance than they are today. These dogs covered hard terrain, in all weathers. Queen Victoria had this dog at her Castle in 1860, and from this the dogs became popular. The Collie was mixed with the Borzoi, and to this day the Borzoi blood needs to be in any dog that is to be in the show ring. It's at this point, the working dog separated. The smooth collie is more popular in the United Kingdom than in America; whereas the rough collie is more popular generally. The AKC considers the rough and smooth collie, as varieties of the same breed. This breed's most famous role would have to be in the movie, "Lassie".