Family-friendly: | 4/5 |
Exercise needs: | 3/5 |
Easy to train: | 4/5 |
Tolerates being alone: | 2/5 |
Likes other pets: | 4/5 |
Energy level: | 3/5 |
Grooming needs: | 3/5 |
Shedding: | 5/5 |
- Dogs suitable for experienced owners
- Extra training required
- Generally healthy breed
- Enjoys vigorous walks
- Enjoys one to two hours of walking a day
- Large dog
- Minimum drool
- Requires grooming once a week
- Chatty and vocal dog
- Barks and alerts to visitors/anything unusual
- Could have issues with unknown dogs but gets along with known dogs
- May need additional training to live with other pets
- May need additional supervision to live with children
- Needs a large garden
- Can live in semi-rural areas
- Can be left occasionally with training
This breed can suffer from:
- Hip Dysplasia
- Collie eye anomaly which is an inherited condition where the eye does not develop properly and can potentially lead to blindness.
- Retinal pigment epithelial dystrophy which is where deposits form in the eye which can cause damage to the eye and blindness in dim light.
- Multi drug resistance gene which is an inherited condition that makes a dog sensitive to particular drugs.
Priority Kennel Club health schemes and testing:
- Eye screening scheme
Personality
Friendly and good tempered, the Smooth Collie is alert and active, needing plenty of mental stimulation and entertainment to make a good family dog. They enjoy training and can reach very high standards of canine competition if that is what you enjoy, but as long as you enjoy working them in some form, they won’t mind if they bring home rosettes or not! They can be sensitive and prone to excessive barking, and so need gentle, calm handling and consistent training.
Did you know?
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Queen Victoria’s favourite Smooth Collie was a dog named ‘Sharp’, and he often featured in pictures with her. His grave is at Windsor Castle and is marked with a bronze statue.
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Queen Victoria’s love of the Smooth Collie actually benefited both Smooth and Rough Collies, as they were often described simply as ‘Collies’ and with few photographs at the time, many assumed it was the Rough Collie she favoured.
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Despite being wonderful pets, they’re currently on The Kennel Club’s list of vulnerable native breeds.
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It’s thought that they got their name from ‘Colley sheep’ which they herded, whereas others believe that the name comes from the Anglo-Saxon term meaning ‘useful’.
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