sheltie sizes

Well, who the heck knows how these pups will turn out! I admit that I'm fascinated by trying to guess with Callan, but he just keeps surprising me....grows fat then up, then fat, then up again. But according to the charts, he should end up average. IF I can figure out his food intake....that's another topic.....

 

This is a topic that hits close to home with me right now. After losing my male Rocky, a traditional size 14" Sheltie to seizures I went to look at a registered male Sheltie that needed a home.

The woman turned out to be a backyard breeder with 2 large female Shelties (looking not at all like the Sheltie standard) and had purchased a 3 year old male to breed to them.

Imagine my surprise to find an 18"+ collie stud dog with the straight long collie nose, very thin, virtually no coat or mane and conformation issues very evident. Yes, he is a Registered Sheltie! He is the sweetest, most love starved dog I've ever met and has been passed from one backyard breeder to the next his whole short life and has lived in cages. This is a dog that never should have been used for breeding if only for his severe "toe in" stance that comes straight out of the shoulders but when $$$ are involved, people just don't care.

I had taken my little female along (14" and perfect conformation) to make sure they could get along and the woman said "wow, she's awful small". I kept my mouth shut and bought him from her anyway for $250 just to get him out of there.

He is adjusting nicely to having a doggie door with a fenced yard, plenty of love and his breeding days are over.

I have owned and trained horses for decades and have seen many substandard horses (registered ones included) being bred just because someone thought they could make some money or that it would be cute to have a foal. For some reason it never occurred to me that the same thing goes on with the dog breeds-my new boy could not be further from the Sheltie standard and yet he came with AKC papers. Apparently the dog registries are not watching and don't care what is being bred just as the horse registries do.

You couldn't ask for a nicer, more affectionate pup than this and I have welcomed him into my home but let's face it-there are only so many homes out there for dogs and horses alike. Backyard breeders never look at the bigger picture and it's extremely sad and discouraging.

 

when searching

For some reason it never occurred to me that the same thing goes on with the dog breeds-my new boy could not be further from the Sheltie standard and yet he came with AKC papers. Apparently the dog registries are not watching and don't care what is being bred just as the horse registries do.[/QUOTE]

When I was looking in my town, there were people posting AKC shelties...and had papers, but seeing the parents it became OBVIOUS that either AKC is really lax now, or people are misrepresenting stuff. One breeder I visited, the parents BOTH looked more pomeranian than sheltie. Another breeder the dogs looked like smooth hair collies, just minature, longer noses, and no coats to speak of on the parents, shelties HAVE fur unless you shave them-they weren't shaved. Another looked like beagle/sheltie mix...all telling me they were registered. Ok, sure, but no thank you. Having had shelties, it was obvious some other breed was involved in the genetics of some of the dogs I checked out. Times have changed....

 

Slightly off topic but since it was asked twice I will post the answer, AKC is not a governing body to make sure generations are keeping that look of what a breed should look like, AKC is just a registry. They simply keep track of pedigrees on a registered breed. The are not concerned with dog A is pumping out 3 legged dogs, all they track is dog A's Lineage and it can be traced back to a legitimate breed. It is up to the breeders who are supposed to be stewards in the breed and keeping with the breed standard to produce quality dogs. Are there bad apples? Just like everything in life absolutely.

And as far as "rescuing" those dogs that are from BYB or mills, you may feel better about yourself at the end of the day and im sure they dog is grateful for a loving home, but unfortunately all the BYB breeder sees is the ability to make a sale to keep moving forward and breeding and selling. Its not helping the dogs in the future its perpetuating the problem. The only way to stop them is to not buy.

 

Wow he's going to be a big boy