The Shetland Sheepdog – Courting Controversy

By Lee Connor

The gorgeous Sheltie is a breed that has recently been the subject of quite a bitter controversy here in the UK. I wrote a piece about it a couple of year ago and somehow managed to escape with all my limbs intact – renowned writer and judge Andrew Brace, however, wasn’t so lucky! We had both basically said the very same thing but he was unfortunate to feel the full force of Sheltie vitriol!

Some of the Sheltie folk had proposed a split, to recognize the American Shetland Sheepdog as a separate breed. These people are passionate about their breed and I can certainly see both sides of the argument. Since the founding of the American Shetland Sheepdog Association, the breed (like a number of others around the world) has taken a different route in its adopted homeland and has gone on to evolve a slightly different type to that exhibited in the UK. Some British breeders claim that the American dogs are more exaggerated and are heavier than their UK counterparts.

This, they say, warrants a separate classification as a breed. Mr. Brace and I argued that they were not a different breed, but simply different types; it is something I am very aware of in my chosen breed, Dachshunds. We have some very different variants on the Dachshund theme; Continental, English and American types, and breeders here work with and (for the most part) success- fully blend them all. Isn’t this what a responsible breeder should be doing? Keeping and maintaining a diverse gene pool of stock?

But this wasn’t the first controversy to rock this breed as we shall soon discover.

The actual origins of the Sheltie are difficult to trace as there appears to be no reliable early records. That there have been dogs on the Shetland Islands from the earliest times is beyond question, but what breeds went into the making of the Sheltie is unknown. That there is much Collie blood is, of course, certain, but there is a story of a black and tan King Charles being left behind by a vis- iting yacht that is said to be behind the preponderance of black and tans registered in the first Island Club register. Another breed mentioned by early writers as playing a part in the creation of the Sheltie is the Yakki (said by some to have been a native breed of Greenland).

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Posted by Alex on Feb 26 2018. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.