Coat Colors in the American Collie
There are 5 coat colors recognized in the USA in the Collie, here is the palette...
The sand
Sable, also called fawn or sable, is the emblematic color of the Collie with Lassie.
The dog is covered with a brown coat, the face is generally lighter, drawing a "Mickey mask", the white markings are present, as well as the black diamond on the tail.
It ranges from pure fawn to the darkest fawn depending on the subjects. It is a color that darkens with age.
The eyes should be brown.
The Habs
The Tricolor is the original color of the Collie, it is very widespread.
The dog is black with tan markings on the face, legs and plastron (like Beaucerons and Rottweilers) plus white spotting.
The black and the lights must be intense.
The eyes should be brown.
The Blue-merle
Bleu-merle is the third and last recognized color in France.
The dog wears a silver gray coat called "blue" on which are drawn black streaks. The coat is completed by tan markings and white variegation.
The coat must not "scorch" and homogeneous and harmoniously distributed variegation is preferred.
Eyes may be blue: one or both, sometimes particolor.
The Sable-merle
The Sable-merle is the result of the marriage between a fawn and a blue-merle.
It can take several forms: a very light fawn or a dilute variegated fawn, or a dilute merle.
The eyes can be blue or brown.
The White
The White Collie is not uncommon! It is the fifth recognized color in the USA and Canada.
White Collies have no vision or hearing problems because the head is always colored, it is not a dilution! A white that had a head with invasive white would be a double merle, with all the problems that ensue.
The head is either fawn, or tricolor or blue-merle, the body is white but some spots of the coat color of the head will be tolerated.
Weddings of Colors
All matings are allowed with the exception of merle x merle (blue-merle and/or sable-merle) which produces a percentage of DOUBLE-MERLE puppies recognizable by their invasive white head. These puppies suffer from microphthalmia, deafness and sometimes other internal problems.