Border Collie Trivia
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42 free Border Collie trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This Border Collie trivia quiz covers the herding dog from the Anglo-Scottish border in depth: the landrace collies it descends from, Old Hemp and Adam Telfer, Wiston Cap on the ISDS badge, Hindhope Jed's voyage to the southern hemisphere, and the 1915 moment the name 'border collie' was coined. There are questions on colours and heterochromia, show-ring standards that forgive battle scars, life expectancy, Collie eye anomaly, the MDR1 drug mutation and 'the wobbles'. The quiz also runs through sheepdog trials from Bala in 1873 to the 800-yard International double fetch, the AKC recognition row of 1995, agility's 'Anything But Collies' classes, flyball world records, mountain rescue, and the famous individuals: Chaser and her 1,022 toys, Rico and fast mapping, Fly in Babe, Messi at Cannes and the Oscars, Shep from Blue Peter and Jean the Vitagraph Dog. Questions run from easy to expert with the difficulty shown on each one, and every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its citation. If you enjoy it, try our Dogs and Australian Shepherd quizzes next.
30 of 42 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Border Collie takes its name from the frontier between which two countries?
England and Scotland
The breed is named for the border between England and Scotland, and the name was adopted to set working sheepdogs apart from the collies being bred for the show ring.
Q 02Which breed came last in Stanley Coren's 1994 obedience ranking, the list that put the Border Collie first?
Afghan Hound
The Afghan Hound came last, yet Coren stresses it was bred as a refined running hunter, a very different kind of intelligence from obeying commands.
Q 03Which dog, born in Northumberland in 1893, is regarded as the founding sire of the Border Collie breed?
Old Hemp
Old Hemp was so widely sought as a stud dog that most of the early International sheepdog champions carried his blood.
Q 04What happens to the family dog Snoop near the end of Anatomy of a Fall?
He is poisoned
He is poisoned when Daniel feeds him aspirin to test a memory of how the dog fell ill when his father overdosed.
Q 05What made the Border Collie's founding sire different from other sheepdogs of his era?
He worked far more quietly
He worked far more quietly than the louder sheepdogs of his day, and within a few generations his style had become the Border Collie style.
Q 06A Border Collie's way of herding sheep is a toned-down form of which instinct?
Stalking prey
Stalking prey: generations of breeding kept the predator's stare and chase but dulled the urge to kill, so the sheep get moved instead of eaten.
Q 07When his owner fell 70 feet in a California forest in 2022, what did Border Collie Saul do?
Brought help to him
Brought help to him: the man had managed to phone for it himself, but the team still couldn't find him until Saul ran through the forest and flagged two of them down.
Q 08Which breed was developed from Border Collies?
The New Zealand Heading Dog
The New Zealand Heading Dog was developed from Border Collies imported to New Zealand; the country's other sheepdog, the Huntaway, was bred to bark and drive rather than to 'eye' the flock.
Q 09What is the most common colouring of a Border Collie?
Black and white
Black and white is the most common Border Collie colouring, yet two black-and-white parents can have a brown-and-white pup if both carry the recessive liver gene.
Q 10Border Collies with two different-coloured eyes most often have which coat pattern?
Merle
Merle: the merle gene dilutes dark pigment at random, so it can turn one eye blue, and the Kennel Club standard allows blue eyes only in merles.
Q 11Some working handlers avoid dogs with mostly pale coats because of what unfounded belief?
Sheep will not respect a white dog
Sheep will not respect a white dog, some handlers believe, yet the American Border Collie Association says appearance is not linked with working ability.
Q 12In the cartoon Bluey, which of Bluey's friends is a Border Collie?
Mackenzie
Mackenzie's family moved to Australia from overseas, and his parents still cheer for their old country's teams, which leaves him confused.
Q 13Glacier National Park's Border Collie Gracie was trained to move which wildlife away from a crowded parking lot?
Goats
Q 21What does ABC stand for in the 'ABC' classes at UK dog agility shows?
Anything But Collies
ABC stands for Anything But Collies: collies dominate the top of large-dog agility, so these classes give other breeds a route to the finals.
Q 22Georgia Tech's FIDO project fitted a Border Collie named Sky with a sensor that let her do what?
Communicate in audible English
The idea was to let service dogs warn of danger or summon help if their handler collapsed.
Q 23On PBS's NOVA, the Border Collie Chaser showed off her vocabulary to which TV scientist?
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Goats gather there because crowds keep predators away and leave behind the salt the goats crave, so Gracie herds them back to a safe distance.
Q 14What was the leading cause of death in Border Collies in a 2004 Kennel Club survey?
Cancer
Cancer led the survey, but fewer than a quarter of the owners asked sent back a form, so its authors urged caution over the results.
Q 15The MDR1 mutation in some Border Collies makes them dangerously sensitive to which parasite drug?
Ivermectin
Ivermectin can cause neurotoxicity in Border Collies carrying the MDR1 mutation, because the faulty gene disables a pump that normally keeps such drugs out of the brain.
Q 16After Chile's 2017 wildfires, three Border Collies ran through burned forests wearing backpacks that did what?
Scattered seeds
Scattered seeds: the dogs cover far more ground in a day than people sowing by hand, and within months plants were growing back.
Q 17Border Collie Ruswarp's paw print counted on a 1980s petition because he was a fare-paying passenger on what?
A railway line
A railway line: Ruswarp's owner co-founded the campaign to save the Settle–Carlisle route, and after tens of thousands of objections the government reprieved it in 1989.
Q 18Which body's 1995 recognition of the Border Collie did working clubs oppose?
The AKC
The AKC moved the Border Collie out of its Miscellaneous Class in 1995, over objections from working clubs that feared the breed would lose its working ability.
Q 19The American Border Collie Association cancels the registration of any dog that has done what?
Won a conformation championship
Won a conformation championship: the working registry takes that step because it breeds for herding ability, not for looks in the show ring.
Q 20Besides sheep and cattle, Border Collies are used to clear unwanted wild birds from which places?
Airport runways and golf courses
Airport runways and golf courses use Border Collies to chase geese and other birds away, and at airports that helps keep the runways safe for planes.
Neil deGrasse Tyson watched Chaser at work on NOVA; she knew 1,022 toy names and understood that a name meant an object, not just a command to fetch it.
Q 24In a 2021 study, Border Collies gifted at learning toy names did what far more often than typical dogs?
Tilted their heads
Tilted their heads: the gifted dogs did it when their owner asked for a toy by name, which the researchers suspect is a sign of closer attention to a word that means something.
Q 25Rico, a word-learning Border Collie, was studied by which German research institute?
The Max Planck Institute
The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology team found Rico still remembered new names four weeks later, and argued that this kind of word learning isn't unique to humans.
Q 26Rico picked a new toy by its new name, showing which mechanism toddlers use?
Fast mapping
Fast mapping was the researchers' verdict, though Yale psychologist Paul Bloom cautioned that Rico had shown his understanding only by fetching.
Q 27Which breed came second to the Border Collie in Stanley Coren's intelligence ranking?
Poodle
The Poodle ranked second behind the Border Collie in Coren's 1994 ranking, which he built by polling dog obedience judges.
Q 28In the film Babe, the piglet is taken in by a Border Collie mother named what?
Fly
Fly, the Border Collie bitch, mothers Babe after her own pups are sold; her irascible mate is Rex. The 1995 film earned seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
Q 29Who voiced the Border Collie mother in the 1995 film Babe?
Miriam Margolyes
Miriam Margolyes voiced the motherly sheepdog, and the film's mix of real and animatronic animals won Babe the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.
Q 30Which Border Collie won the Palm Dog award at Cannes in 2023 for playing Snoop in Anatomy of a Fall?
Messi
Messi won the 2023 Palm Dog for playing Snoop, and his trainer's children had named him after the footballer Lionel Messi.