What a Golden Retriever × Border Collie is actually like

30 August 2026

I don't think many people know this cross exists. When we tell someone what Annie is, a Golden Retriever crossed with a Border Collie, the reaction is almost always the same: that's going to be a lively one, that's a lot of energy.

So here's what it has actually been like, from someone in the middle of it rather than someone who has read about it.

The cross has a few names, none of which anybody says out loud. Coltriever is the most common. Gollie and Golden Border Retriever turn up as well. We just say she's a Golden Retriever crossed with a Border Collie, because that's the version people actually understand.

Is she more collie or retriever?

Honestly, it's still being decided. It's a crazy one.

More collie shows through than I expected. But the physical need to be touching someone as much as possible is very much retriever.

Fetch is where you see both at once. She picked it up immediately, back and forth, back and forth, with nobody teaching her anything. I think that's the collie wanting a job to do and the retriever wanting to please you, arriving at the same place from two different directions.

Do they need as much energy as everyone says?

Everyone says it. Lively breed, needs a lot of energy.

What I've found is that as long as you keep her entertained, direct it, and give her a job to do, she's super, super chill. The energy on its own isn't the problem. Energy with nowhere to go is.

The job right now is small. In these early stages it's biting on the right things, and not my sofa or my shoes. That's genuinely the whole of it, and it's enough.

What surprised me most?

How easygoing she is.

I thought socialisation would have to be really, really slow. I'd braced for that. Instead she's happy to just sit and watch, as long as she's close by to her humans, and she'll happily take food the whole time she's doing it.

That's the biggest surprise, and if I'd known one thing before we collected her, it would have been that.

The joke we keep making

Some days I say we've been missold a land shark. Other days, that we've been missold a German Shepherd, because she does look very much like one.

Early days

All of this is from the first couple of weeks, so take it as a snapshot rather than a verdict. The day by day is on the front page, written up as it happens, including the parts that don't go well.