Pug Border Collie Mix (Pug-Collie) – All You Need to Know
Last Updated/Info Checked on August 28, 2023 by Linda Michaels
The Pug Border Collie mix, let’s call it Pug-Collie, is an exciting hybrid that combines the goofy nature of a Pug and the intelligence of a Border Collie.
These and other traits make this designer breed suitable for families large and small. However, it goes without saying that proper socialization training and exercise are necessary to bring out the best in it.
As someone owning it, you will have to spend time and maybe resources to turn this crossbreed into a healthy, happy, and well-rounded companion. Once done, the breed has the capacity to incorporate into your family for years to come.
Guessing the traits of a hybrid or a mixed breed depends on its parentage. They can vary widely as a result of the dominant genes inherited from them.
You may also be interested in: Pug Blue Heeler Mix (Pugler)
What Should We Call a Pug Border-Collie Mix?
The name for a Pug and Border Collie mix could vary depending on personal preference and creativity. Here are a few fun and imaginative name suggestions:
- Pugle Collie
- Border Puggle
- PugHerder
- Collie Pug Mix
- Pugley Shepherd
- Pugle Shepherd
- Collie Puggle
- Border Pugle
- Pug-Collie Blend
- Pug-Collie
Border Collie is renowned for its exceptional intelligence and is widely known as one of the smartest and most trainable dogs in the canine world according to the Border Collie Society of America.
However, Pugs are delightful and affectionate by nature. They are known for their loving and friendly demeanor, making them wonderful friends and beloved family pets.
Based on the individual characteristics of a Pug and a Border Collie, let’s delve deeper into the appearance and physical characteristics, temperament, behavior, living environment, nutrition, grooming requirements, training, exercise needs, and health considerations of a Pug-Collie.
Pug Border Collie Mix – Pug-Collie Traits
| Weight | 20 – 40 lbs |
| Height | 15 – 20 in |
| Coat Colors | Apricot, fawn, black, red or blue merles, white |
| Behavior With Children | Friendly when trained |
| Behavior With Strangers | Welcoming after training |
| Behavior With Other Pets | Friendly when trained |
| Adaptability | High |
| Nutrition | 1 to 2 cups divided into two or three meals |
| Grooming | 4 to 5 times a month if the coat is short or more if the coat is long |
| Trainability | Moderate to Hard |
| Intelligence | Moderate to high |
| Exercise needs | Low to moderate |
| Shedding | Low when it inherits the short coat |
| Barking tendency | Low to Moderate |
| Biting tendency | Low |
| Personality | Affectionate, loyal, and playful, but it has herding instincts. |
Appearance And Physical Characteristics
The Pug Collie hybrid has a diverse appearance along with physical characteristics that reflect inheritance from both its parents. You may see some with their Pug parent characteristics such as a square body having a deep chest and a funny face possessing wrinkles with a short muzzle.
When the Border Collie’s appearance genes dominate the hybrid, it may come in a medium to large size with a lean hairy build, elongated muzzle, and keen eyes ripe with expression.
The coat colors may also vary in the same way, ranging from a Pug’s fawn, black, or apricot colors to a Border Collie’s blue or red merle patterns, or black and white coat.
Credit: FB / @Cork Dog Action Welfare Group
Related: Pug Bulldog Mix (Pugabull)
Temperament And Behavior
The mixed breed offers a unique blend of temperaments coming straight from its parents.
You may see the Pug’s playful, goofy, and affectionate nature combined with the Border Collie’s sharp mind, intelligence, and excellent herding instincts to produce an offspring that is both affectionate and loving at the heart but extremely sharp in mind.
Coming toward their behavior during training, they can be aloof to your mistakes during the sessions. At the same time, they may question your methods based on their mood. With proper training, however, you can even train them to perform tasks normally assigned to a Collie.
Although expecting them to be as good as their parent is a long shot because they still have a Pug’s lazy genes, the hybrid breed can still come out to be pretty impressive.
It cannot be overemphasized that early socialization is extremely important and necessary in molding the dog to your will. You’ll have to work on controlling their herding instincts to get the best of it.
Behavior With Children
As mentioned, proper early training will ensure that the breed retains its playful and gentle demeanor around children as they are predisposed to be good around them.
However, it’s essential to keep any interactions between them supervised before that, especially with babies or younger children.
The main culprit here is the breed’s herding instincts taking over as it mistakes running children for cattle. It doesn’t essentially run after them to hurt them, but instead, it may nip at their heels in an effort to divert them to a specific location.
It’s also essential to teach your kid how to interact respectfully with the dog. Both of these efforts will ensure a stronger bond between them to prevent any potential issues.
Behavior With Strangers
A Pug-Collie’s behavior toward strangers highly depends on the traits it inherits from either its parents.
For example, some of them may come out to be welcoming and accommodating like Pugs. Compared to that, others may show a more reserved and cautious personality towards new people arriving at your home.
The second type will take some time to warm up the new faces. It’s advisable that you do not force them to be welcoming or punish them for any reaction on their part. Doing this will only worsen your dog’s personality towards strangers as it will lose even a modicum of trust in saying hi to them.
So to say, the dog will take a few training sessions to be desensitized to new people and to start trusting them.
Behavior With Other Pets
If you leave it to the inherited genes of a Pug-Collie you may find a dog that may turn out to be a nuisance for other pets, especially small dogs or cats. Again, the onus is on its herding instincts.
As it is with other mixed breeds, proper introductions and plenty of positive reinforcement will ensure a healthy interaction between your pets, including the hybrid breed that you’re thinking of adopting. That will create harmonious relationships, thus, putting the small dogs or other pets out of danger.
It’s important to mention that a Pug-Collie would not potentially try to hurt small animals. Just like its interaction with small kids, it will try its skills at herding them toward a specific location.
In doing so, the second dog may retaliate and this may cause a bigger problem such as a potential fight. To avoid this, make sure that the interaction between them is supervised, especially when the dogs are not properly introduced or either of them has not received proper training.
Living Environment
The hybrid breed has the ability to adapt to living in apartments as well as spacious homes with access to open areas where the dog can hang out.
When you intend to raise it in your apartment, make sure that you have the time and resources available to take it to a park or any large area where the dog can move a muscle.
The reason for that is the Border Collie heritage makes the dog highly energetic and intense in carrying out various activities.
You have to observe your dog’s temperament to see if it has taken more after the Border Collie parent.
In such a case, it’s best to keep it in a home with a large yard or access to open spaces that allow it to release the enormous amount of energy that it possesses or practice its natural instincts.
Besides regular exercise, the dogs need additional mental stimulation to stay away from boredom which leads to other behavioral issues such as destroying things around the house, barking unnecessarily, or slipping into depression.
Nutrition
Just like any dog breed mixed all pure, the Pug-Collie also needs a balanced diet to reach its full potential.
You should take care to not overfeed the breed as both parent breeds have a tendency to develop obesity. Much like them the dog likes to nibble on things potentially all day when presented with the opportunity.
You could be mistaken by their frequent pleas to eat something to consider feeding them more than they need. So watch out for this.
Feeding the right amount of food per day divided into the appropriate number of meals depends on a dog’s health, activity, and age.
Therefore, it’s always advisable to consult a vet regarding setting the appropriate portion of dog food for the breed. You should also consult them to decide whether your puppy needs additional nutritional supplements.
Grooming Requirements
The breed’s grooming requirements also depend on which parent’s coat it has inherited more. Going with a Pug’s short coat, the dog would need low maintenance with only four to five times a month brushing to remove any loose or broken hair.
Remember that this frequency will increase especially during the shedding season which occurs twice a year with the seasonal changes.
In case the dog inherits a Border Collie’s coat, it would need more frequent brushing to discourage the formation of mats or tangled tufts. When it comes to shedding seasons, it will shed more, which will require more attention. You may have your furniture clad with its fur during that time.
Besides coat grooming, focus on the folds that the dog may inherit from the Pug parent to discourage any bacterial colonies from forming.
Trim its nails only when you hear them making a sound against the floor and be careful when doing so to not hurt the dog as you hit the lower part that contains arteries.
Besides a long coat, it may also inherit a Border Collie’s bushy tail. Pay attention to any dirt stuck between the hair as owners normally either forget to brush that part or do not deem it as necessary as brushing the rest of the dog.
Training And Socialization
As mentioned earlier, the hybrid breed can be quick learners eager to please you only when it does not present a Pug’s stubbornness at some points, which makes the training sessions a bit challenging.
With proper positive reinforcement that involves treats, praises, and plays, you can tone down that tendency to make the dog more receptive to your training method.
Focus on early socialization and consistent obedience training to raise a well-behaved and confident Pug-Collie. The dog has the ability to adapt to multiple scenarios and given its high energy it can outshine other breeds in a number of tasks but only after proper training.
Exercise Needs
Because one of its parents is a Border Collie, you should keep in mind that it may inherit high energy levels and high intensity. As a result, it would need plenty of walks, playtime, and other engaging activities such as puzzle games or fly balls to release that kind of energy.
You may as well have to engage in obedience and agility training to further improve the dog’s skills and foster a close bond with it.
Doing all this is important to keep the dog from any potentially destructive behaviors that may put its life in danger. After all, it’s a dog and it will do anything in its right to release all the pent-up energy and entertain itself.
As a general rule of thumb, taking it out for a 30 to 40 minutes walk followed by comprehensive playtime that may focus on mental stimulation more than physical such as a puzzle game or eating out of a puzzle mat should suffice.
However, just as with any other breed, this time period depends on an individual dog’s health, age, propensity to take part in activities, and its heritage.
Speaking of which, the dominance of Pug’s genes would make the hybrid more of a couch potato who likes to hang around the house in search of cuddles and plenty of love, and of course, food.
The dog may present both tendencies characterized by periods of intense activity followed by periods of laziness. As an owner, you’ll have to keep a stern eye on where your dog lies on the spectrum between a Border Collie and a Pug.
Image Credit: shannonmcmillenphotography / IG
Health
Much like other mixed breeds, Pug Collie may inherit some of the genetic diseases from its parents – the Pug and the Border Collie. Some of these conditions may prove to be detrimental in the long run.
For example, the puppy may have eye issues inherited from its Pug parent or problems related to its brachiocephalic nature. Other conditions such as hip dysplasia and allergies may also potentially resurface in later life.
Adopting a dog from a responsible breeder is crucial in mitigating the chances of having genetic diseases like these passed on to the offspring.
Such breeders conduct regular health screenings and go for genetic testing of the adult dogs to point out any problems within their genetic makeup that could pass on. Seek them in your area because later you will be happy to have gone the extra mile to adopt a healthy puppy.
Of course, this isn’t a process to completely remove illnesses from a dog. There are myriads of other diseases that may attack it in later life. They have nothing to do with the genetic makeup of a canine.
Should You Adopt a Pug Border Collie Mix?
The Pug Collie mix is a fascinating designer breed that has the best from both parents. It is as affectionate as the Pug and as intelligent as a Border Collie.
The variability and their nature or personality make them a suitable option for families who are looking for a feisty dog with a zest for life that also doubles down as a working canine ready to fulfill its tasks with heartfelt concentration.
As an owner, you’ll have to check the dog’s personality and see where it weighs more on the Pug–Collie spectrum to train it as such. For example, if it has the characteristics of a Collie more than a Pug, you’ll have to spend more time and make more effort in training it to curb its herding instinct.
Similarly, if it has more Pug in it than a Collie, you’ll have to keep in mind that it will take creative training sessions to train a dog that will test your methods and mettle.
Some traits appear to be novel in this hybrid. For example, it may get bored of a single activity repeated multiple times in a day to ask for a change in routine or at least the way you train or perform that activity.
Lastly, one thing that is common in all three breeds is their propensity to slip into separation anxiety when you leave them alone for a long time. They all get attached to their families to the point of becoming inseparable. It’s in their nature.
The Pug was created to be a lap dog, the Border Collie works in a pack so it’s always looking after the leader, and their mix inherits this trait of limitless love for the owner.
Pros
- Affectionate with family
- Doubles as a working dog
- It can be accommodated in an apartment.
- Low grooming needs
- Highly playful and cheerful
- Loves playing with children when trained well
- Retains the intelligence of a Border Collie and the silliness of the Pug
- Emotionally available for its owner
Cons
- Prone to separation anxiety
- Not for novice owners
- High energy requires high exercise
- Has herding instincts
- Needs careful and consistent training
Image Credit: shannonmcmillenphotography / IG
How was this guide about Pug Border Collie Mix, if you like it make sure to share it with your friends.
