BC Museum: Half-White Faced Border Collies

THE BORDER COLLIE MUSEUM Permanent Collection

HALF-WHITE OR SPLIT-FACED
AND ALL-WHITE FACED
BORDER COLLIES

Note on the Color Pages: --PLEASE READ--

Up till now, I have accepted photos of people's dogs and have put them up on the appropriate pages when I have had the time. However, these pages are getting enormously large, for which there is a cost associated in both time and money (space costs). Furthermore, I have accumulated an enormous backlog of photos that I have not had time to put up, and given the size of the website in general, and the fact that I would like to expand it in other areas, I have not had the time to update the color pages.

So, sadly, I have come to the conclusion that I must cut back the existing pages by removing some photos and leaving only those that best represent particular colors or patterns. I will no longer be accepting photos of other people's dogs for publication on this website except from time to time if a perfect example and a great photo comes along. To those of you who have sent photos that have not yet gone up, I apologize for never having gotten to them.

Still, I have to say that I enjoy getting photos of your dogs and seeing for myself the huge variety there is in the breed. So, if you would like to continue sending me photos, and continue to correspond with me, I would like that very much, and am still available to answer any color questions you may have to the best of my ability.

Thank you for your support on the subject of color genetics in the Border Collie.

-- Carole Presberg, editor and curator, Border Collie Museum

Apparantly a different gene affects the patterning on the head, causing blazes of different widths, sometimes split or half-white faces, and sometimes all white faces or heads on an otherwise "normally" patterned body, with or whithout colored ears. This patterning is very common in the Border Collie. It appears in dogs of all colors and may have been purposely selected for by hill shepherds. A shepherd who owns two dogs and works them in hill conditions, would want to be able to tell them apart at a distance. If one of them has a mostly black head, and one of them has a mostly white head, they'd be clearly distinguishable from far away. Among some people, and in some breeds, patterns such as this are considered "mis-marked", but this is not the case with Border Collies, since this pattern is so frequently seen in the breed. With this page, I must admit I had a lot of trouble doing the weeding. There are so many different manifistations of split face that I feel I must show them all. It shows how little is known about what genes affect color and pattern. There must be many modifiers that effect this facial pattern.

The editor of these pages has had three dogs with half or full-white faces: Ettrick Linn (above center); sable Chance (above right); and white-faced Sage with black ears and one blue eye (left, seen here with her red split-faced sister, Folly, who belongs to Pat Kuchma of Connecticut).

This dog is Moss, photographed in Rochester, New York by Rick Garren.

These two handsome dogs are Oliver and Luna, belonging to Darcy Zimmerman of Valecito, California. They are not quite mirror images of each other. Darcy adopted them from shelters 150 miles apart from each other. She was surprised to find two half-white faced dogs both with one blue eye in the black side, and wondered if this was unusual. But, as some of the dogs below show, it isn't.

This is Spinner. He belongs to Sylvia Bishop, a top obedience trainer in the UK. Spinner took 2nd place in the Crufts Obedience Championships this year, at his first appearance at Crufts. Thanks to Sharon Webley, who took Spinner's photo and says, "he's a lovely dog". Sharon has been very kind to share her photos. Most of them were taken by her, but some have been sent to her by the dogs' owners.

Above are four more half-white faced dogs with one blue eye in the black side, photographed by Sharon Webley. The three on the left are, left to right, Bobby, Dempsey, and Fisher. Bobby belongs to Susan Henshaw from Aylesbury, Bucks, England. Dempsey belongs to Maureen Hodges of Sanderstead, Surrey, England. Fisher, who is a son of Spinner, above right, belongs to Lee Barker of Hullbridge, Essex, England. They were photographed in England at a dog show. The half-white face is not only practical for distinguishing dogs at a distance, but is a very striking pattern, as all these dogs attest to. Left is Springer, a red and white littermate of Fisher, above, owned by Kamal Fernandez of London

This magnificent creature is Matisse (Detania Shmily Matisse), shown at just over 6 months old. He is red merle and half-white faced, with two ice-blue eyes. Matisse belongs to Paula Wright, of Haverhill, Suffolk, England. His dam is Detania Heatherbelle, and his sire is Detania Delinwood. Paula thinks that he is unconventional-looking--but Matisse only proves how diverse the Border Collie gene pool is when it comes to looks.

Although we think all the half-white faced dogs are splendid-looking, we didn't think any dog could follow Matisse's act until we saw Karly (left) and her son, Nicky. Karly, red-and-white and speckled, is a British Obedience Champion. She and red-and-white Nicky belonged to the late Greta Haggett from Crowthorne, Berkshire, England, who sadly died a few months ago. The dogs will continue to live with Greta's husband.

These are Bizzi (left) and Teddy who belong to Sharon Webley of Rochester, Kent, England, two handsome guys. Bizzi is black and white with two gorgeous blue eyes, Teddy is a red tricolor.

Once again, thanks to Sharon Webley for the photo of Marley, left, who is owned by Mrs. H. Fox of Brighton, England. Marley competes in top level UK obedience competitions.

This gorgeous saddle patterned tan is Lacey, who belongs to Anita Young of Horseheath, Cambridgeshire, England. She competes in UK obedience competitions. Sharon says this is the first half-white-faced saddle tan she has ever seen, and we have to agree. We might never have seen one if it wasn't for Sharon sharing so many of her photos with us, for which we are extremely grateful.

This lovely girl is Meg, a red and white Border Collie that belonged to Nick Such and his family, of Heswall, on the Wirral peninsular, which is just north of Wales, in the UK. They got her from a farmer about 7 years ago, after she spent 2 years in a shed, and she turned out to be a wonderful and devoted dog. Unfortunately, she died a few months ago. Notice that Meg has an interestingly-patterened half-white face.

Here's Katie, a dog adopted through Border Collie Rescue Texas and fostered while in rescue by Jennifer Phoenix. Katie now belongs to Karen Greene who also took the photo of this beautiful girl.

Left, with a face to die for, this is Ouzo who belongs to Anda Stavris of Denver, Colorado. And below, Ouzo, all grown up, still has a face to die for.

This magnificent and aptly named creature is Albion Moonshadow ("Albi") belonging to Alison Arcadial, who shows him in conformation.

This is Jesse, who belonged to Amelia Stephen of Beldon, Western Australia. Jesse was adopted by Amelia when she was 2-years-old, and sadly had to be put to sleep in February 2005 at the age of 12. She had an all-white face, obscured by her beautiful black freckles, which unfortunately don't show up well in the photo.

This is Pearl, a patterned-white Border Collie with a split face, belonging to Barbara Lockard. It is unusual to see a split face where the black covers so much of the face--more than 50% of it, and all the way down to the nose. Barbara describes Pearl as her "right-hand", and says she is "a working Border Collie. She is proof that color doesn't matter when it comes to working sheep." So why is Pearl pretending to be a couch potato (right)?

All of these split-faced dogs belong to Brittney MacNeill of Hillcrest Border Collies. The mirror-image red females, left, are Roo and Risk. Above, left, are Quest, Loki, and Whip. And the dog above, right, is Hillcrest Jen, a split-faced tricolored female.

This pup (above, and left as a full-grown beauty) is Amber, belonging to Caz Russell from Somerset, England. Caz acquired her as a 7 week old puppy from a farmer who thought he couldn't sell her because of her coloring, and Caz thought she was red and white. But Amber has much more interesting color things going on: she is actually a patterned-white sable with a white face.

Aptly named Smudge belongs to DebbieBaylis from Warwickshire, England. Smudge not only is blue merle, but he has what appears to be a heavily speckled split face. Now, the question is, is the face a "true" split face or is it split because of merling?

This really interesting-looking dog is PJ, belonging to Scott and Jackie Douglas of Wisconsin. PJ is almost entirely white except for a small tan spot on her back, her ears, and her split face, which seems to be split three ways instead of the usual two: white on one side, and nearly equal amounts of black and tan on the other. It's difficult to tell, but PJ might actually be a sable. Jackie says that her husband races cars professionally, and PJ gets to go everywhere with them, and is even asked for autographs by the admiring kids. What a beauty she is!

Pippin is a beautifully marked patterned white dog owned by Tara from Nova Scotia. Tara pointed out areas on his ears that looked blue or grey to her, but we think it is due to his heavy ticking (which is most apparant on his muzzle) rather than to merling, which would affect the black areas on his body as well.

This is white-faced Kimahri, belonging to Emma O'Brian from the UK. Kimahri came from a rescue center when she was 5 months old and Emma's children named her after a character in a computer game.

White-faced Juno belonged to Gary Maguire of London, England. He came originally from Ireland but lived most of his life in London, where, sadly, at 13 1/2 years old he was struck down by a car.

This adorable mer-dog is Razzy who belongs to Andrea Davis of St. Petersburg, Florida.

Beautiful smooth-coated Babe, who belongs to Gary and Becky Campion of Floyds Knobs, Indiana, has an interesting story. She had been chained in a yard for 3 years and beaten when she escaped. Finally, her owner moved to Florida and abandoned her, still chained in the yard, without food or water. At that point, the Campions, who had been keeping an eye on her all along, dognapped her and brought her home. She was a difficult dog, but after 3 months of training, Babe is a lovely dog that they and their cats can now live with peaceably and enjoy.

This gorgeous boy is Harley, belonging to Stacie Hernandez of Bakersfield, California. Stacie says that Harley has the "personality of a kid" and she is sure Harley thinks he is human. He loves to fetch anything.

This cutie is Marley, a smooth-coated Border Collie belonging to James and Cathy Horne of San Diego, California.

We commend the owner of this gorgeous pup for his incredible good taste in NOT naming him the obvious--Panda--even though he looks exactly like one. John Cooper of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, named his pup Taz (Hollowshot Tazman) but has since changed it to Bobby (Hollowshop Bobby). We wonder if the mechanism for this facial pattern is entirely the same as for the split face. Anyone know? Below is Bobby all grown up.

Jester was a rescue dog, whose photo was sent by Ken Cheatham, a rescue person from Fairbanks, Alaska. We don't know who owns him now, but we find his split face interesting in that is so evenly and straightly splits his face in half. If Ken or his owner happens to see this page, we'd appreciate knowing who he belongs to now.

Here's another dog with the "panda" facial pattern. He is red/white (chocolate) Samwise ("Sam") belonging to Krista and Leeanne Hutchinson from Australia. They do obecience and agility with him.

Here's another Harley with a split face. He belongs to Liz Suits of Burkittsville, Maryland. Of Harley, Liz says "He is three years old and his breeding goes back to Gilchrist "Spot". Harley is the first dog that I have trained to a competitive level and he has earned titles in both agility and herding. He has an intense work ethic and is equally happy to work sheep, run agility or just relax on the couch! Plus in his spare time, he's loves to swim and play frisbee!"

Lisa Adamson's Ski shows that split faces can come in any color. Lisa and Ski hail from the UK, and in this case, there is no doubt of the split face (unlike in Smudge, above). Ski, besides being blue merle and split faced, is white factored, indicated by the white stripes over his hips and shoulders.

This gorgeous pup is Juno, belonging to Liz and Nigel of South Wales (they did not give a last name). Juno will also go up on the ticked page--she is all grown up now with an immense amount of ticking. But I couldn't resist putting her on this page as well, because of her lovely split face.

This magnificent-looking dog, above, is Abe, who belongs to Michelle Harrier. Michelle says that Abe "is a great trial and farm dog and has won numerous USBCHA trials over the years. He is my partner." Michelle also owns Jen, below, who she says "is a great dog on both sheep and cattle." You can't really see it in this photo, but Jen has one blue eye and a speckled muzzle.

Toby belons to Miranda Galinelli. She says he is gorgeious and we agree. He is 2 years old (2006).

White-faced Rowena belongs to Miriam Inglehart of San Antonio, Texas. Her name, Miriam says, means "white maned" in Celtic, perhaps because the rowan tree (or mountain ash) has beautiful white flowers in the spring. Our sources say Rowan means "red haired", probably because it has red berries in autumn. We think it could mean either and it is a beautiful name. And here is Rowena, all grown up

These two beautiful dogs are Bovva (left) and Kicker. They belong to Sharon Webley of Kent in the UK. Sharon has contributed many photos to this website, including others on this page. She seems to favor the split face dogs. Her Bovva is a saddle-patterned Border Collie and appears on the Saddle-Patterned page of this website, but I thought I would put this photo of him here because he also has a white face with a slight incursion of the black and tan toward his left eye. Kicker is her latest acquisition and she is training him in obedience. He looks to be a smooth-coat.

Handsome Cujo belongs to Steven Dujardin from Kalken, Belgium. He reminds me so much of my Sage, pictured at the top of this page. She tilts her head like that, and of Cujo, Steven says, when I talk to Cujo, his head goes from left to right, he seems to understand me, and when I mention the word "poes", which means cat, his head almost falls off!" That's funny, because Sage does the exact same thing when my husband is getting ready to take the dogs out at night.

We aren't sure if Patch really belongs on this page, but we have other "panda marked" faces here; and if we are assuming that split faces and all-white faces are just extentions of the blaze, then Patch certainly should be here. Patch belongs to Sue McDaniel of Niangua, Missouri. Of him she says, "Patch is a...full time working sheep dog as we run a sheep operation of Dorper sheep. He is also a certified pet therapy dog."

This is Drake, belonging to Tammie Ellis

This handsome guy is Sham, who belongs to Jackie Sandifer of Massachusetts. He is not only split-faced, but patterned white with one blue eye. The photos were taken by Grace Smith, who says Sham "is an avid ball and Frisbee player, and also enjoys herding sheep every chance he gets."

Adorable Bindi belongs to Maartje and Haico Wuerhard from Breda, the Netherlands.

Pretty white-faced, black-and-white Trim (far left) and her brother, white-faced, red-and-white Chile Pepper are littermates. They were bred by Laura Hauss of Borderhauss Kennels in Gregory, Michigan, who owns Trim. Chile Pepper belongs to someone else. Laura says that their sire was white factored and passed that on them.

This is Bear, a smooth-coated, tricolor, ticked, split faced Border Collie or Border Collie/Blue Heeler mix belonging to Adriana Sewell of Washington (state). I love it when a dog has so many color/pattern characteristics.

Izzy was bred at UHERDIT kennel near Louisville, Kentucky, and she belongs to Ann and Sammi Burnworth of Evansville, Indiana. Sammi was 15 when she took this lovely photo of her puppy Izzy. Izzy is another example of the "panda" patterning on the face, and I'm hoping someone who knows the genetics of this pattern will see her and get back to me about it. It's likely a "modifier" gene that causes it. Notice that Izzy also has one blue eye, one brown eye.

This white faced dog is Kay-J, belonging to Anne Bevins of New Zealand. K-Jay is patterned white with one blue eye, and is 5 years old (2007). Anne says of her and Border Collies in New Zealand in general: "She was the last one in the litter that no one wanted as they thought she was ugly. She was quite short haired at the time and had no pigment around her eyes other than one black dot. Her father was a half white collie and his mother was very white. Kays mother was a tradionally marked collie. The litter produced two whites like Kay, one 'normal' , a pie faced and two half white. Kay is now 5 years old and is doing agility, and fly ball, last year achieving Agility Champion...In New Zealand the Border Collie is common but it is uncommon for it to be anything but traditional black and white. It used to be a novelty to see a red, now there is the odd blue and blue merle coming through, and hardly ever odd white markings so Kay gets a lot of looks. Kay J certainly isn't deaf so thats great. People actually ask more questions about her eyes whether or not she is blind, (or whether [the blue eye] is a glass eye...!)".

This split faced dog is black and white Derby, who belongs to Kathy McCovey of Reno, Nevada. Derby was a rescue dog from the San Francisco area.

Bill Lonsdon's Maya lives with her owner in Panama City Beach, Florida. She is an interestingly marked patterned white.

White faced Master Blue belongs to Trish Davey of Sacramento, California. Of him, she says, "I got him from BC rescue to help me with my deaf dog Princess LuLu. I needed a BC to herd LuLu and turn her around so she could see my hand signals. After trying several BCs, who LuLu didn't bond with, she fell in love (instantly) with Blue who is her companion and protector and helps me herd and communicate with her. He is a wonderful dog.... easy to train and immediately shows/tells LuLu who is albino/deaf what the new command is." This is a unique way of using the Border Collie's herding abilities--as a "hearing ear" dog for another dog. I've often thought that dogs might be used for other, disabled dogs in the same capacity they are used today for humans, for example, as a seeing eye dog for a blind dog, or an alert dog for seizures, or to identify the presence of a tumor.

This is beautiful Albi, who lives with Charlotte Craig in Rosis, France, in the mountainous region of Languedoc.

Handsome water dog Ace belongs to Jim Gilson of Georgia, who says that Ace was a rescue dog, and is now "medal winning" at Frisbee and a great companion. Jim's son, C.J. took the photo of Ace on the Etowah River at the foot of the Allatoona Dam. Jim says "It feels like we found a Rembrandt at a garage sale with this little dog." What a great tribute!

This is Ramsey who belongs to Greg Scott of Peyton, Colorado. Ramsey has another of the "panda variety" of split faces, and it appears that his collar is split as well, making him interesting-looking.

This gorgeous boy is Harley, belonging to Stacie Hernandez of Bakersfield, California. He is ticked, prick-eared, split-faced, and very classic-looking. Stacie is convinced he is also human.

Kristen Semmens' Spirit is a split face sable Border Collie that lives in Fargo, North Dakota. Spirit is white factored, as the stripe over his hipss, wide white collar, and spot on his left side indicate.

This beautiful dog is Charlie, who belongs to Lee Watson of Lancasire, England. Lee got Charlie from a rescue center and says that he came with "a lot of severe behaviour problems due to his previous neglect/cruelty. It took 18 months to break ground with him, but I loved him the day I first set eyes on him...He is a wonderful loving companion, and my best friend."

This is Sheda, who lives with Libby McConnell in Wonga Park, Melbourne, Australia. Sheda is named after the vineyard where she was born and raised, the Big Shed Winery. A beautiful dog, with a beautiful and inventive name.

This photo was sent to me by Laura Marquardt of Stephens Point, Wisconson. It is of a split faced saddle-patterned Border Collie who was with Carolina Border Collie Rescue a few years ago. Laura sent Gael's photo because she was a very striking-looking split faced dog, but did not know who she now belonged to. (If the owner sees her on this site, please contact me so that I might update her information). What's so very striking about Gael is that the tan forms the split face. If we can go by the other saddle-patterned dogs on this site, Gael's head (the tan side) was probably black when she was born and gradually turned to tan as she grew up.

Red/white Bordeaux belongs to Kim and Marco Maletti of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Bordeaux has an almost all-white face (the red only extends slightly onto his face on his left side near the eye) which Kim feels has produced his blue eyes; but as we have seen from many dogs on this page, when they have one blue eye and one brown eye, the blue eye is more often in the black (or red) side than in the white side. And plenty of white-faced dogs have dark brown eyes. This seems to indicate that eye color is totally independent of coat color and pattern. Of Bordeaux, Kim says "He works hard - mostly on his language skills. An excellent student, at 3 years old, he had a confirmed vocabulary of 106 words to which he responds with distinct actions...for example, 'High Five' - he lifts his left paw high in the air, 'Shake hands' - he lifts his right paw gently. He is a very calm, laid back dog until the words 'ball', 'flies', 'frogs' or 'rats' are heard, at which point he stands, alert, ready to run outside and look for whichever one you have mentioned to him." Bordeaux is also in agility, and likes to swim at the beach.

This beautiful red tri with a split face and green eyes is Abby, who belongs to someone named Linda (if you see this, Linda, please email me the rest of your information).