I breed Border Collies for work. Any dog or bitch that produces a litter in my kennel will have proven it's worth moving stock, whether that is on farms exclusively or on trial fields as well. Breeding for any other reason will create a shadow of the breed; a dog that looks like a Border Collie but is unable to complete the complex tasks required of a stock dog. It is for this reason I do not register my litters with the AKC.
How Working Breeds Are Lost: The Dart Board Analogy
Because I breed for work, my dogs' coat color is not high on my list of priorities. While Border Collies do come in virtually every color and pattern imaginable, the most common are black and white, black tri color or sable tri color. Occasionally a red dog (genetically brown) is born to black parents because the gene causing this color is recessive. Blue (dilute black) is another recessive color that pops up from time to time in working bred litters. Even less common colors and patterns include merle, brindle, lilac (dilute red) and clear sable ("Australian red").
Unfortunately, the backyard breeders and puppy mills have figured out that people looking to buy a puppy as a pet will pay more for and seek out these less common colors and patterns. Be immediately suspicious of any breeder with these less common colors, especially if they charge more for them. I personally know of only three breeders in all of North America with true working bred merles. This is how rare good dogs of color are within the population.
My dogs and pups are registered with the ABCA (American Border Collie Association). Other acceptable registries for Border Collies in North America are the ISDS (International Sheep Dog Society) and CBCA (Canadian Border Collie Association). There are several working dog registries that are no longer functioning, including the AIBC and NASDS (but not the IBCA). Unfortunately there are several new registries created by people banned from the ABCA for their breeding practices. The dogs in these registries lost their ABCA papers, mostly because of failing a DNA test to verify their pedigree. Please check which registry a breeder uses before buying a dog or pup from them.
While on the whole Border Collies are very healthy dogs, they have the potential to suffer from a number of different genetic disorders. Collie eye anomaly (CEA), Imerslund-Grasbeck syndrome, early onset deafness and trapped neutrophil syndrome all have genetic tests currently available. Ask any breeder about health tests done on the parents to reduce the risk of producing pups affected by these diseases. Even more important, ask about any research the breeder has done on disorders produced by related dogs. There is no such thing as a clean pedigree (one that does not show any links to disease), so be highly suspicious if someone tells you that they do not know of any potential health problems in their lines.
The research I have done on my own dogs' pedigrees is available to those who have or plan to purchase a dog from me, as well as to people who own related dogs. Please remember that no amount of information regarding the health problems in a pedigree can guarantee healthy puppies. As of 2015, I have been unable to locate any bloodlines that are free of the risk of hip dysplasia, epilepsy or early onset deafness. I suspect that with more DNA studies and the widespread use of testing, we will find all lines carry the risk of all diseases to some degree or another.
The following is a list of some of the more common genetic disorders found in the breed. There are others I have not included that do occur, but much more rarely (such as cataracts, glaucoma, luxating patellas, patent ductus arteriosus, liver shunts and chondrodysplasia).
allergies
hearing loss
pigment associated (born hearing but are deaf by 6 weeks of age)
adult onset (born hearing but go deaf from 2 to 8 years old, DNA test now available through Wisdom)
Imerslund-Grasbeck syndrome (fatal if not treated early)
osteochondrosis (OCD of the shoulder)
trapped neutrophil syndrome (fatal in all pups, no treatment available)