Living With Shetland Sheepdogs
The Good and the Bad
Versatility
Shetland sheepdogs are a versatile breed. They excel in everything from obedience, agility, herding, and rally to tracking and service dog work. There is even a sheltie that earned a championship title in weight pulling. The same traits that make them a great working dogs also make them great pets. Shelties are loyal, trustworthy and dedicated partners that are always eager to please their owners. If you are looking for a competitive performance dog or an intelligent and interactive family dog, look to the sheltie.
My shelties have been known to swim, fetch, herd, pull kids on sleds, carry buckets, retrieve dropped items (even when the person is unaware they dropped it), cuddle, ride in boats and work off leash and with only hand signals as well as compete in obedience, agility, rally and showmanship.
Intelligence and Trainability
The Good: Shetland Sheepdogs are incredibly intelligent. According to Stanely Coren in his book "The Intelligence of Dogs" shelties are the sixth smartest dog breed and on average they learn a new command in 5 or less repetitions and obey their first command more than 95% of the time. Another scientist, Kathy Coon, conducted a similar study but based her rankings on the dogs' ability to solve problems like reaching food that is underneath furniture and pulling on ropes to open cages etc. In her study, shelties ranked as the second smartest breed. Shelties are one of the most popular breeds for competitive obedience, agility and other canine sports because they learn with few repetitions and truly try their hardest to please. Shelties are easily motivated by play, food and attention. They are also easily house trained.
The Bad: Intelligence may lead to destruction. While shelties are not typically big chewers, any smart dog that is not both mentally and physically engaged can quickly become be a very destructive and frustrating dog. Shelties need daily mental stimulation. This can be as simple as requiring them to do basic obedience commands randomly, taking 10 minutes to teach them a new trick every so often and remembering to praise them for the small things. The longer an inteligent dog is locked in a kennel, the more direct human interaction they require on a daily basis. Fortunately most adult shelties can be trusted with free roam of the house which provides more mental enrichment than being locked in a small cage all day.
Loyalty
The Good: Shelties are very much a loyal dog. Like most herding breeds, they were originally bred to follow commands at a distance and work in open areas without wandering off or loosing focus. In a home setting, this translates to a dog that is always at your heel and usually can be trained to "come" easily even from great distances.*** Shelties will always love their family more than anyone else, and in that family they often have one person who is their very favorite. As they get older, they become increasingly dependent on their family and prefer routines. While some dogs may appear to love strangers as much as their own family, with a sheltie you can be assured that they love you more than anyone or anything else in their world.
The Bad: Loyalty is equivilant to dependence. Shelties rely very heavily on their people. You should expect to be followed constantly and to have toys dropped in your lap when you are busy with other things. Some people find this annoying, if you are one of those people, consider another breed. Those are traits that only increase as the dog ages. Due to thier loyalty and dependence, rehoming an adult sheltie is extremely difficult for the dog, shelties even more than most dogs should never be treated as disposable. Buying a puppy is a commitment for the life of the dog. I will always help re-home any of my puppies, at any age, and if needed keep them with me until a home can be found.
***There are some skittish shelties that are bolters, be sure to ask the breeder if they would trust their dogs to come offleash. I only breed dogs that I can trust to stick around offleash as it appears to have a genetic link. Also, never take a dog offleash in an unfenced area until you are 100% positive that they will come when called no matter what.
Temperament and Personality
The Good: As a herding breed, shelties have been historically bred for gentleness and a soft mouth. Even a sheltie attacked by another dog or struck by a human will typically not leave any marks/bites when defending themselves. Shelties are an ideal family dog and are very gentle with children and other animals. While they may have the urge to herd or chase occasionally, they are also not the type to attack or kill even the smallest animals. Mine have lived in harmony with all manner of species with my only issues being the occassional mother-hen-dog who thinks the kittens or ducklings need to be protected (with evil glares and body language) from the other dogs or mother cat. They are also great with other dogs if well socialized. Many of the photos on my site where taken at my local dog park.
Some shelties are shy about strangers, I breed for more outgoing dogs.
The Bad: As mentioned above, shelties can be shy around new people or other dogs, and also new places for that matter. It is very important to socialize puppies well while they are young. Expose them to friendly dogs of all sizes, kind people and new places. If this isn't done, especially if the dog has poor breeding, you will likely end up with a scaredy-cat.
Athleticism
The Good: Shelties love to play, run, tug things, chase balls (some retrieve better than others). They are hands down one of the best breeds for agility and other canine sports. They also love jogging and mine love to run on a treadmill. They do best with regular moderate exercise. Because of their loyal nature, they always prefer to get their exercise with their person.
The Bad: Athletic dogs need exercise, many sites recommend shelties as apartment dogs because of their small size. They neglect to mention that they still need moderate regular exercise or they will be restless and unhappy.
Alertness
The Good: A sheltie's job is to monitor all movement in the house and insure the safety and well-being of their people. I am not sure how they all know this, but they take their self-appointed duties very seriously. They are cuddly dogs, but only when everything is still. When people are walking around, the sheltie is usually following or monitoring from a distance. They are always watching and do best when people include them in things, all it takes is an occasional pat or a few kind words for them to feel included.
The Bad: Shelties pay attention to everything. They can't help it, they have bred for it for over a hundered years. Unfortunately, in some individuals the heightened senses and attention causes increased incidence of sound phobias in herding breed dogs. This is also a trait that typically intensifies with age. NEVER have a sheltie outside during fireworks or around gunshots, even the best-trained dog may bolt and get lost.
Shelties are also prone to barking at novel situations like the doorbell ringing, during play or other exciting situations.
Coat
The Good: Shelties are beautiful with their long flowing coats. Maintenance of those coats is less than many people think, while they do leave some hairs around, for the most part they don't shed or require much brushing except for behind their ears and the "feathers" on their tail and hind limbs. Shelties do occasionally "blow" their coat, this means that all of their undercoat comes loose at once and is shed. For most shelties a day or two of extensive line brushing with an undercoat rake or shedding blade will remove all of the undercoat leaving a half naked, but no longer shedding dog. See below for details.
The Bad: For most of the year they only shed minimally, and only require light weekly brushing to maintain their coat and prevent matting, but when they "blow" their coat it is an absolute explosion of fluff. If ignored and not brushed out, this fluff will fall off in clumps on furniture, carpet etc. and can create terrible matting in the coat.. They can make a huge mess. This occurs approximately yearly for most dogs (males and spayed females) and twice annually for unspayed females. Also, every year a sheltie’s coat gets thicker, so it only gets worse with age. Because their guard hairs are slow growing, I do not recommend shaving them. The fine hairs behind their ears and at their rump are also more prone to matting, especially if they get wet and are not brushed frequently.