50 Fun Facts About Shetland Sheepdog

The Sheltie's native islands lie between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and which country?

They sit about 140 miles west of Norway and 110 miles from mainland Scotland.

The Shetland Islands, home of the Sheltie, are the northernmost region of which country?

They lie about 110 miles from mainland Scotland, out in the North Sea.

In which year did the Kennel Club formally recognise the Shetland Sheepdog?

The first registered Sheltie was a female called Badenock Rose.

The breed's original name upset a rival breed's fanciers and had to be changed. Who objected?

The Kennel Club at first refused to recognise the breed at all, then agreed on condition the name changed.

The Sheltie is described as a small dog that is clever, vocal, willing to please and what?

It was developed to thrive in the harsh, meagre conditions of its native islands.

Which of the Sheltie's fellow Shetland animals has been extinct since about 1930?

The semi-domesticated grice had a habit of attacking lambs.

The Sheltie's original ancestors were dogs of which type?

The original island sheepdog probably resembled the modern Icelandic Sheepdog and was later crossed with mainland collies.

The Sheltie's ancestors were crossed with the Yakki, an Icelandic dog brought by whalers from where?

The Yakki stood about 14 inches and was usually black with tan or white markings.

The dark snout shading on some sable Shelties, a legacy of early black-and-tans, is called what?

Many early Shetlands were black and white or black and tan.

Folk tales say one contributor to the Sheltie's ancestry was a King Charles Spaniel that arrived how?

Pomeranian ancestry is also thought likely, given the breed's appearance.

Who added a small collie to the breeding stock in the early 1900s, shaping the modern Sheltie?

Crosses to Rough Collies continued until the 1940s to keep the desired type.

How tall were the original mixed-breed Shetland herding dogs at the shoulder?

The first breed club then set a maximum of 15 inches.

The first breed club wanted a miniature collie no taller than what?

Such standards led breeders to add collie blood to hit the miniature-collie look.

What breed replaced the now-extinct Spitz-type working sheepdog for herding on Shetland?

Shelties were used for herding until commercial farming demanded bigger dogs.

Which colour casts in a blue merle Sheltie's coat does the standard call highly undesirable?

The overall effect of the coat must read as blue.

What was the name of the first Sheltie registered with the American Kennel Club, in 1911?

Badenock Rose was the first registered with the English Kennel Club two years earlier.

The general appearance of the Shetland Sheepdog is that of a miniature what?

Despite the resemblance, the Sheltie is not simply a bred-down Rough Collie.

The Sheltie's outer coat is described as long, straight and what?

The undercoat is soft, short and close to the skin, and the long coat should form a mane.

Sable Shelties range from pale gold to what?

Wolf-sable and grey are undesirable.

A blue merle Sheltie's coat is described as silvery blue with what markings preferred?

Tan markings are welcome but not required.

What is the ideal height at the withers for a male Shetland Sheepdog?

Bitches should be 14 inches; more than an inch either way is undesirable.

How are a Sheltie's ears carried when the dog is alert?

They are small and set close together on top of the head.

A Sheltie's eyes are always dark brown except in which case, where one or both may be blue?

The eyes are medium-sized and almond-shaped.

The Sheltie's head is described as a long wedge tapering from where to where?

The muzzle is the same length as the skull, dividing at the corner of the eye.

In Stanley Coren's 1995 intelligence rankings, where did the Shetland Sheepdog place out of 138 breeds?

An average Sheltie learned a new command in under five repetitions and obeyed first time 95 per cent of the time.

A UK study found what life expectancy for the Shetland Sheepdog?

A Japanese cemetery study put it even higher at 14.3 years.

Shetland Sheepdogs have four times the usual risk of which cancer?

The breed is also predisposed to lupus, dermatomyositis and other skin conditions.

A UK study found Shelties how many times likelier than other dogs to develop gall bladder mucocele?

An insertion mutation in the ABCB4 gene is strongly associated with the condition in the breed.

The Sheltie's MDR1 gene mutation causes sensitivity to which common anti-parasite drug, among others?

Loperamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and erythromycin are also on the danger list.

In a study of a million hip scores, what dysplasia rate made the Sheltie fifth-lowest of sixty breeds?

Its eyes and gall bladder, not its hips, are the breed's weak points.

Collie eye anomaly, common in Shelties, results from incomplete closure of what?

It is an autosomal recessive trait, and the frequency in US show collies has been put as high as 95 per cent.

Collie eye anomaly frequency is described as high in which two breeds?

It is low in Border Collies and Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers.

Which ulcerative skin disease, thought to be a lupus variant, does the Sheltie share with its collie cousin?

It affects the thigh, groin, armpits and belly.

The Sheltie is affected by which two types of von Willebrand disease?

It is an inherited bleeding disorder.

In its size group, the Sheltie is said to dominate which dog sports?

Herding instinct can still be measured at non-competitive herding tests.

Which Sheltie sire produced the most champions, 160 of them?

ROM after his name stands for Register of Merit.

Mickey, the Sheltie hero of the Canadian children's series Mickey's Farm, moves to the farm from where?

His best friend is 14-year-old Megan, and each episode ends with an original song.

How does the Lassie-type collie's face differ from the Sheltie's?

In collies the planes of muzzle and skull are parallel; in Shelties they are not.

What does the collie breed article say of the genetic link between the Sheltie and its lookalike?

The Sheltie is at most partly descended from the larger collie, via early 20th-century crosses.

The Icelandic Sheepdog, thought to resemble the Sheltie's ancestor, derives from dogs brought to Iceland by whom?

It is the only dog breed indigenous to Iceland.

Besides sheep, what else did Shetland Sheepdogs originally herd, according to the Herding dog article?

Today they are family dogs and popular agility competitors in the United States.

The Shetland pony, the Sheltie's equine namesake, has been on the islands since at least which era?

For its size it is the strongest of all horse breeds, and it worked as a pit pony in coal mines.

Which town has been the capital of Shetland since 1708?

Scalloway was the capital before that; the islands' population was 23,190 in 2024.

In 1468-69, Shetland was pledged to Scotland by King Christian I as security for what?

Margaret was marrying James III of Scotland; the pledge was never redeemed.

The Sheltie's coat is double, and the face is described as what?

The long body coat shortens around the face, giving the look of a mane.

How does the breed standard describe the Sheltie's undercoat, beneath the long harsh outer coat?

The long outer coat shortens around the face, giving the dog the appearance of a mane.

Stanley Coren found an average Sheltie learns a new command in fewer than how many repetitions?

His 1995 study also found Shelties obey a command the first time it is given at least 95 percent of the time.

Ancestry from which small toy breed is described as likely, given the Sheltie's appearance?

The breed's origins are obscure; it is a descendant of small Scottish Collies and the King Charles Spaniel rather than a shrunken Rough Collie.

What was the name of the first Shetland Sheepdog registered with the English Kennel Club in 1909?

The dam of the first English Sheltie champion, Gesta, was actually a Rough Collie, reflecting early crosses to fix the type.

An insertion mutation in which gene is linked to the Sheltie's high rate of gall bladder mucocele?

A UK study found the breed almost 94 times more likely than other dogs to develop the condition.