Beardie Colours

Bearded Collies are born one of 4 main colours – black, brown, blue, or fawn, usually with some amount of white markings. As they grow, most Beardies exhibit ‘fading’ with the colour lightening (often dramatically) over a number of months, and then slowly darkening again to their adult colouring. There can be a wide variation in shade as adults, with a black pup ending up anywhere from silver to jet black, and a brown ending up from sandy to chocolate. For this reason we continue to refer to them by their birth colour, though it’s also common for black pups who have faded to grey to be referred to as ‘slate’. Blue and fawn are dilute colours, and can be distinguished by their corresponding dilute pigment , with blues having grey pigment and fawns a light pinkish brown.

Black puppy - three weeks old.

Same black Beardie as an adult.

Blue puppy at seven weeks.

Same blue Beardie as an adult.

Brown puppy at four weeks.

Same brown Beardie as an adult at 8 years old.

Fawn puppy at six weeks.

Same fawn Beardie at 4 years old.

White markings typically appear on the legs, chest, muzzle and head, neck, and tail tip, though the amount can vary from minimal to extreme. According to the breed standard, white should not appear around the eyes, on the body behind the shoulder, or above the hock on the outside of the hind legs. Dogs with white in these areas do occur with frequency, and while not considered correct for the show ring, they are just as wonderful as companions and performance dogs as their more acceptably marked siblings.

This Beardie is white with fawn markings (body) and has correct head markings.

Tan markings also occur in some Beardies and are most noticeable above the eyes, on the cheeks, on the legs where white joins the main colour, and under the tail. In most cases the tan markings fade along with the rest of the coat during the first year, and blend in to become almost unnoticeable in adults.