Quite a considerable amount of interest has been expressed in the colour changes of the Bearded Collie and it would seem pertinent to explain this.

I doubt there is another breed, which has such a wide range of colour shades in coat colour than the Beardie. They are born black, blue, brown or fawn (with or without collie markings) and tri-colour. The tri-colour puppies having tan markings on their cheeks, eyebrows, inside edge of back legs and under the tail. These markings are very attractive but do fade and disappear. For this reason it is important for breeders to state on their pedigrees and registration papers if the puppy is a tri-colour because it will be almost impossible to tell at a later stage.

Incidentally any of the four basic colours can be tri-colours but it is more pronounced on a black puppy.

The birth colours almost always change or fade as the puppy gets older, due to the "greying" gene. Dr G. Johnson of the Department of Animal Genetics, University College, London, has researched this fact. The "Greying" gene is also found in the Kerry Blue and Yorkshire Terrier, Shih Tzu and Silver Poodles. This gene caused the born black puppy to eventually turn to any shade from dark slate to silver grey, beginning around the eyes to give the effect of the puppy wearing spectacles, and at the hocks; likewise the chocolate brown puppy will fade to as lighter shade as cream. The born blue and born fawn puppies can and do turn almost white by about 9 months old and tend to remain like that until they are around 15 months old when the colour returns to their coats as they commence getting their adult coats.

In the adult Beardie there is sometimes very little difference between the coat colouring of a once black (now slate) dog and the blue dog, because the blue can turn a medium shade of grey and then be mistaken for a slate. The same applies in the case of the born brown and born fawn puppies - where the coat colouring can be very similar, however, there is one difference which will always tell you what colour the Beardie was born and that is the pigment of the nose, eye rims and lips.

In the slate dog the colour must be black, whereas in the blue dog the nose will be a dark grey. When seen together the difference is very obvious. The blue is allowed to have lighter eyes than the slate, which must tone in with the coat and in fact the correct eye colour for a blue Beardie, is a lovely soft grey/blue. China blue eyes are not permissible and brown eyes in a blue Beardie is also not correct.

In the slate Beardie, the darker the eye the better. Likewise the brown dog will have darker brown nose and eye rims and lips than the fawn where it is a "pinky/brown". Again the eye colour must tone with the coat and the fawn Beardie can have a lighter fawn to golden eye than the brown Beardie.

In many breads dark eyes are preferable, the preference for eye colour to tone with the coat colour is a unique trait in the Beardie and something not generally known to the public, new breeders, and indeed, in some cases judges. Light eyes in a dark slate dog are not permissible because you do not get the soft expression required in the breed standard.

As the young Beardie grows into adulthood his coat will continue to change with darker hair coming through and growing down but what makes him so interesting is that the colour continually changes throughout his lifetime - this is more noticeable in the browns and fawns but can be seen in the slates. In any event the adult coat does not come into being before the age of around 3 years with a few getting a mature coat at about 2 years. Beardies are unique in their re-darkening of the adult coat colour.

In conclusion I would just say, when you see a young Beardie that has a very light coat, don't think there is something wrong. If the nose, eye and lip pigmentation is good and of the correct colour his adult coat will come through darker for sure and chances are that when you seem him again you will not recognise him. I always find it most fascinating to watch a puppy gradually changing colour and eagerly await seeing what shade he will eventually be.

Marlene Pritchard

Westmilwunda Bearded Collies                                        Return to Beardie Index

July 1999