A well built and properly structured collie is a natural born trotter. They move efficiently, with a smooth gait that seems effortless. Their gait is balanced and designed to save energy,  and they almost appear as they float over the ground they are covering. As the collie picks up speed from a walk to a trot, he will single track. He will bring his front legs inward in a straight line from his shoulder to the centre of the body, while the hind legs move inward from the hip to the centre of the body.

If you watch closely from the side view, or better yet, take a slow motion video and replay it, you will notice the left front and rear legs are under the dog supporting their weight, while the legs on the opposite side are both fully extended. The back foot will land in the same spot as the front foot. This is called single tracking, and the footprints of a collie who is single tracking will leave a single line of only one track  in the snow. This effortless gait is inherited in collies, and allows them to quickly change their direction of travel, which is very useful in a herding breed. 

If a dog is poorly structured, they will not display this beautiful, fluid movement as they should. Short steps taken with the front legs, or a lowering of the head while moving, both indicate a weak front structure. Watch too, for the front leg to be extended from the shoulder, not from the elbow, which would show a poorly structured front end which will prevent the dog from moving as it should. 

1. All rough collies today trace back to one collie named Trefoil. A tricolour, Trefoil was born in Ireland in 1873. You can likely trace your collie back to Trefoil using online pedigree databases if your collie is registered. Unregistered collies of course won't show up in pedigree databases, so you would hit a dead end at some point. I've traced mine back to Trefoil. They take different paths, but they do lead there. It's a fun but time consuming exercise. 

2. Did you know the skin on your collie's nose is called leather? It's true! While it's not technically leather, the word is used to describe the textured layers of skin that make up the nose. One more fun fact about your dog's nose - his nose print is as unique to him as your fingerprint is to you! 

3. If you've ever wanted a merle collie with blue eyes, you should know you can't breed for blue eyes. If the pigment deletion caused by the merle gene lands on the eyes, or on one eye, the puppy will be born with blue eye(s). It's purely random. 

4. Did you know that blue merle collies are genetically Tricolour? Technically, they are black merles and the merle gene causes random pigment deletion of the black hair (eumalanin) so it appears silver or bluish. If they didn't have the merle gene, they would be tricolour collies. Its like they're top dressed with a beautiful blue coat!

5. Every collie likely has two copies (homozygous) of the Irish spotting gene, which is why it always breeds true. It is not testable (yet), and it creates that symmetrical white pattern on our collies' neck, chest, chin, belly, lower legs and the tip of their tail, and creates the thin white snip or blaze some collies have on their face.