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Border Collie — BetterBred Breed Page – BetterBred.com
BetterBred Breed Profile

Border Collie

Temperament: Energetic, intelligent, and intensely focused. Bred for stamina and biddability, Border Collies need serious daily mental and physical work. Strong herding drive and motion sensitivity - not a casual pet.
Height: Males: 19-22 inches (48-56 cm), Females: 18-21 inches (46-53 cm)
Weight: 30-45 pounds (14-20 kg)
Life Span: 11-15 years
Outlier Index ?
0.41
Born before 2016: 0.43 Born after 2024: —
Avg Genetic Rel. ?
-0.05
Born before 2016: -0.01 Born after 2024: —
Internal Relatedness ?
0.04
Born before 2016: -0.04 Born after 2024: —
#NameGender OIAGRIR
1 Charli F 0.58 -0.08 -0.13
2 Imp Neifinn Rock M 0.35 -0.06 -0.17
3 JBK The Buck Stops Here @ JaBo M 0.44 -0.03 -0.04
4 JABOWHATSLUVGOT2DOWITHIT@GATORHEAVEN F 0.54 -0.12 0.27
5 Invo-8 F 0.24 -0.06 0.24
6 Infinity Runner's Something Special F 0.28 0.02 0.06
7 EC's Gambit M 0.54 0.02 -0.13
8 Bordercross Whose Deeds Are Good TKN M 0.59 -0.14 0.11
9 Elsa F 0.35 -0.05 0.05
10 Olaf M 0.41 -0.03 0.12
Border Collies came out of the landrace farm shepherds of the Scottish and English border regions, where a working type had settled into something recognizable by the mid-1800s. The breed traces overwhelmingly back to a single tricolor dog, Old Hemp (1893-1901), whose style of work became the template for the modern breed and who reportedly sired around 200 pups. From the start, Border Collies split along working and conformation lines, with the International Sheep Dog Society registering on herding merit and other registries recognizing conformation type. Separate registries and strong regional working populations around the world have kept the gene pool comparatively broad, though heavy use of a handful of foundation sires has left its mark on the breed's genetics.
Collie eye anomaly and epilepsy are the main genetic concerns, along with MDR1 drug sensitivity, trapped neutrophil syndrome, neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis, degenerative myelopathy, and adult-onset hearing loss. Cancer and hip dysplasia show up at moderate rates. DNA tests are available for most of the Mendelian disorders.
VGL has reported Border Collies carrying an average of around 8.06 alleles across the 33 STR loci, with an effective allele count near 3.85. There is real variety in the breed, but a smaller subset of common alleles still dominates. Breeders can help redistribute the rarer alleles by picking less related mates and keeping puppies that carry less common versions, rather than only the most typical ones. VGL testing has found Border Collies in pretty good shape as a breed. Observed heterozygosity is close to expected, and the breed-wide inbreeding coefficient sits near zero. That average covers up a wide spread between individual dogs, though - some are quite outbred, others are as inbred as offspring of first-cousin or full-sibling pairings. The breed has more room to improve on the individual-dog level than the breed-wide numbers might suggest.

Average metrics by birth year for dogs with recorded birthdates in the BetterBred database.

A 3D genetic map of enrolled Border Collie dogs in the BetterBred database, based on allele-sharing distance across 33 STR loci. This is not a complete picture of the breed — it reflects only dogs whose owners have enrolled them. Drag to rotate · scroll to zoom · hover for dog names (public profiles only).

Historical founders — oldest 25% of enrolled dogs     Current gene pool — most recent 50% of enrolled dogs
Building plot… this may take a minute for larger breeds.

The Dog Leukocyte Antigen (DLA) region controls immune function and is the most polymorphic portion of the canine genome. Every dog carries two sets of DLA haplotypes — one from each parent — which almost never recombine across generations. Frequency percentages reflect how often each haplotype appears across all allele copies in the breed, not the percentage of dogs carrying it.

Class I Haplotypes

HaplotypeFrequency
1236
33.3%
1012
16.7%
1045
16.7%
1068
12.5%
1011
8.3%
1104
8.3%
1029
4.2%

Class II Haplotypes

HaplotypeFrequency
2017
29.2%
2003
16.7%
2039
16.7%
2001
12.5%
2002
8.3%
2096
8.3%
2067
4.2%
2075
4.2%

Class I & II Combinations

Class IClass IIFrequency
1236 2017
29.2%
1012 2003
16.7%
1045 2039
16.7%
1068 2001
12.5%
1011 2096
8.3%
1104 2002
8.3%
1029 2075
4.2%
1236 2067
4.2%

The Canine Diversity Test from UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory is the foundation of BetterBred’s breed management tools. Testing your dog adds to the breed database and gives you access to the full suite of breeding analysis tools.

Order from UC Davis VGL →
OI
Outlier Index

The Outlier Index (OI) measures how unusual a dog’s allele combination is relative to the tested population of its breed. A higher OI means the dog carries alleles at lower frequencies across the breed — genetic variants that are underrepresented in the population as a whole.

Dogs with high OI are genetically valuable because they carry diversity that most other tested dogs don’t share. Breeding them thoughtfully into the broader population helps redistribute lower-frequency alleles rather than allowing them to become even rarer over generations.

The breed average shown here reflects all dogs tested in the BetterBred database. The senior and youngster comparisons show whether diversity is trending up or down in recent generations.
AGR
Average Genetic Relatedness

Average Genetic Relatedness (AGR) measures how similar a dog’s DNA is, on average, to every other tested dog in the breed. It reflects the dog’s mean kinship — how closely related it is to the population as a whole.

A lower AGR means the dog is more genetically distinct from the majority of the breed. Dogs with low AGR carry alleles at lower frequencies across the tested population, making them higher-priority candidates for inclusion in a well-managed breeding program.

AGR is conceptually related to mean kinship used in conservation genetics for managed species populations. A declining AGR average in younger dogs suggests the breed is successfully redistributing genetic diversity across generations.
IR
Internal Relatedness

Internal Relatedness (IR) measures how much identical genetic material an individual dog inherited from both parents. IR is a useful indicator of inbreeding: lower IR generally reflects lower inbreeding, and it is widely used and reported in the scientific literature.

A high IR is not the cause for alarm it might appear. Elevated IR can often be resolved in a single generation by pairing with a dog whose ancestry is less represented in the breed. It is a signpost, not a sentence.

BetterBred reports IR for reference, but it is not our primary breeding guidance tool. OI and AGR together give a more complete and actionable picture of a dog’s genetic value to the population.

AGR tells you which dogs are genetically unusual relative to the population. OI tells you which dogs are most valuable to preserve. OI specifically weights mid-frequency alleles, identifying dogs whose ancestry is underrepresented in a way most likely to benefit the breed.