Dog Breed DNA Test Database – Shetland Sheepdog
Appearance
Shelties have a double coat, which means that they have two layers of fur that make up their coat. The long, rough guard hairs lie on top of the thick, soft undercoat. The guard hairs are water-repellent, while the undercoat provides relief from both high and low temperatures.
There are two additional coat colours that are quite rare because they are unacceptable in the breed ring. The colour-headed white (majority of fur white, with the head ‘normally’ marked) can occur when two white-factored dogs are mated. Double merles, a product of breeding two merle Shelties together, can be bred but have a higher incidence of deafness or blindness than the other coat colours. There have been reports of a brindle Sheltie but many Sheltie enthusiasts agree that a cross sometime in the ancestry of that specific Sheltie could have produced a brindle.
The breed standard for height is from 13 to 16 inches (33 to 41 cm). A measurement outside this range will result in dismissal from the conformation ring, and three dismissals result in the dog being banned from any more conformation classes. Shelties normally weigh around 14–25 pounds (6.4–11 kg).
Temperament
The Shetland Sheepdog is an outstanding companion dog and is intensely loyal. It is lively, intelligent, trainable, and willing to please and obey. Shelties are loving, loyal, and affectionate with their family, but are naturally aloof with strangers; for this reason Shelties must be socialized. Some can be quite reserved. Shelties do well with children if they are reared with them from an early age; however, their small size makes it easy for a child to accidentally injure them, so supervision is necessary. Exercise caution when considering an adult Sheltie for a family with young children; they may not be compatible. The average Sheltie is an excellent watch dog, giving alarm barks when a person is at the door, or a car is in the driveway.
For more information please click on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shetland_Sheepdog
Other interesting sites include: http://www.essc.org.uk/