Color Discrimination

I can see how a black dog might look intimidating to some people. U cant see their eyes or facial expressions clearly. Also, their teeth stand out more.
 
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I think that it could also be a bit of ignorance about the breed that places sables in higher demand with the general population.

I'm thinking about other threads where people have mentioned that their dogs are mistaken for other breeds because they "don't look like Lassie". I know that when I was little I had no idea that shelties came in any other color. I'm from a small(ish) town and I'm the only person that I knew that had a sheltie.

It may be that people see tris or bis or even merles as "not really shelties". If you think of a sheltie as a "mini Lassie", as many people do, then you probably have your heart set on that look...which is sable.

I don't feel the same way, but I can see how that might be the case, especially in more rural areas or where shelties are pretty rare.
 
It's just the area really, but here, bi-blacks are pretty easy to place, at least when it comes to performance people. The breeders around here that people go to for performance dogs have a lot of top bi-blacks and heavily bi factored tris that they breed, so placing a bi-black here isn't difficult.
What I personally think are THE hardest to place are tri males. Males of any color are harder to place, but tris are the hardest.
Danis, it's the same thing with your breeder. Himark is big around their area, and they've bred a lot of top bi-blacks, so they've become more popular around there as well.
 
corbinam said:
I think that it could also be a bit of ignorance about the breed that places sables in higher demand with the general population.

I'm thinking about other threads where people have mentioned that their dogs are mistaken for other breeds because they "don't look like Lassie". I know that when I was little I had no idea that shelties came in any other color. I'm from a small(ish) town and I'm the only person that I knew that had a sheltie.

It may be that people see tris or bis or even merles as "not really shelties". If you think of a sheltie as a "mini Lassie", as many people do, then you probably have your heart set on that look...which is sable.

I don't feel the same way, but I can see how that might be the case, especially in more rural areas or where shelties are pretty rare.
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I agree. When I was younger, I didn't know shelties came in other colors. I only learned that when a neighbor of mine got a bi-black. It has a lot to do with ignorance and people wanting a "little Lassie"
 
I've never had a problem selling any color.

I have 2 blues and a tri. My mother has a tri and a sable, and my younger brother has a blue.

Personally, I prefer tri's and blues. It's the eyebrows!
 
I love the Blue Merles and that is what I am looking for, but I also love the tris. I think with me I have a tendency to pick a less common colour than is usual in the breed - so with my lab he had to be chocolate because that was the unusual colour!

However, I still placed emphasis on temperament, health and quality of breeding, which is why I drove 6 hours for my boy!

As for black dogs, yes rescues do find black mongrels hard to place. There can be many reasons for this, for a start they are a 'common' colour and don't stand out, also their expressions tend to be harder to see so they are less appealing to potential owners.

Curiously, dogs can also have trouble with black dogs as they too find it hard to read their faces (similar problems can arise with boxers as other dogs can't read their expression and this makes them nervous).

For my part, I have nothing against a black dog, however I'm not keen on pure white dogs, especially in breeds such as border collies where sometimes you get a dog with a white head. For some reason I don't like that, I think its the pinkiness around the eyes. Same applies to white horses - give me a black any day!

Interestingly, while watching highlights from Crufts 2009 on the internet I noticed that the majority of shelties performing in the agility and HTM were tri-colours, which seemed curious to me.

As a side note, in the world of labs black is the most common colour and many will tell you it is the ONLY colour you should ever own a lab in:rolleyes2:
 
BarbV said:
One thing to keep in mind is that Tri's usually have the tan "eyebrows" For some reason that seems to give them a devilish kind of look. Maybe that's the difference.
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I was never too fond of Tri's for this reason but I've gotten used to seeing photos of them on the forums and changed my mind. I now really like the coloring of tri's but my husband still doesn't like it. However, knowing him I'm sure he'd change his mind if he actually SAW a nice tri in person.

Bi-blacks have grown on me too, after seeing what a pretty girl Sadie's sister grew into :smile2:
 
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