Size of your Shelties?

[MadisMomma]

Someone tried to convince me last week that there are "mini" shelties (a breed). I had to come home and look it up, lol. And, of course there arn't, me and my husband had a laugh.

I had the same thing happen to me last week! They kept asking me if she was a miniature sheltie. Umm, no, she's normal size. They said she looks so tiny and dainty. Well, no wonder. She said her male sheltie was 49 lbs

I could not convince her that she wasn't a miniature

I'm ALWAYS having to correct people, telling them she is a SHELTIE, not a miniature collie. Couldn't tell ya how many times I've heard, "She look just like Lassie."

 

[Hunter's Mom]

This thread got me wondering

so I measured Hunter today, out of curiosity. He is exactly 16 inches, on the dot. I measured twice. At this point, if I let his nails grow out, he would be over sized! So the charts are close, within an inch.

Hunter was 15 7/8" and is 17 mos old. I think I last measured him around 4 months ago.
His parents were around 14" each (just goes to show, you never can tell just by the sire/dam size!) and he was guesstimated at 15.25-15.5" adult size on all the charts as a pup (I tracked him weekly lol). So he ended up being about .75" taller than predicted.
If I tickled him in the belly, he would probably be over-sized
He weighs between 24 and 25.5 lbs.

 

[mcguiregirl2248]

There is actually a "Toy Shetland Sheepdog club of America" You can google for it. They claim their size of shelties (8-12 inches) is the original and correct standard, not the size the AKC has accepted.
While they might be right, that might have been the original size of shelties before the collie crosses occurred in the late 1800's and early 1900's, down sizing by breeding tiny to tiny is no different than what the "T-cup" breeders do to breeds like Chi's and Maltese. I worry about health, temperment and correct confirmation when a breeder's biggest concern is breeding for the smallest dog they can. There are cases where "T-cup" dogs have been so poorly bred and so tiny, they literally have no room for their internal organs in their abdominal cavity, as well as other genetic malformations and complications.

The fact is, the Collie crosses happened and it changed the size of the breed.

Now this rogue band of "toy sheltie" breeders are trying to change or undo this. My questions is, are they doing it safely and responsibly?

I'm glad you posted this. Zoe, the one with kidney problems, came from a breeder that breeds them small to be Toy Shelties. This is why she has kidney problems! I wish people would just leave dogs alone instead of trying to change it to get more of the market on the puppies!

 

[blacknblue]

I have a bigger sheltie and a barely inside the standard sheltie. Frosty is about 19 inches, 35 lbs. He also has an incorrect stop and looks quite collie-ish. Being a merle, he's often mistaken for an aussie and sometimes a collie. He's the same size as my border collie. Both his parents were well inside the standard though, and his littermate sister is 12 inches . Ripley is a hair under 16 inches, people usually don't realize they're the same breed.