How big is your Sheltie?

R

robertllr

Forums Regular
Our new sheltie pup--who is now 7 months old--has reached an astonishing height of 18 inches at the shoulder! Her front leg growth plates are only now just beginning to smooth out, so maybe she won't get any taller. But she is still one BIG sheltie puppy!

We didn't buy her as a show dog, but obliviously she is already 3 inches over the maximum for the breed standard. We have her pedigree and her dad is a champion and her mom comes from a line of champions, so gigantism doesn't necessarily run in her family.

I'm just wondering, do any of you owners have dogs this tall, or is should our Rona be in the Guinness book of records?
 
Wow! A spreadsheet on size! Thanks for linking me to that, I never would have guessed there was such a thing!

Interesting that the median recorded height is 16 inches--which is above standard. I can't help but wonder what that signifies. Do most members have dogs that are bigger than standard? Or do mainly members with taller dogs post to the spreadsheet, for some reason?

Looks like our pup is already in the 85th percentile (males and females) in this list. So, yeah, big dog.

Thanks again. (As a retired math teacher, I confess to an affection for statistics!)
 
Lol - yeah I've got a stats degree, so I like to crunch the numbers too. I started keeping tabs on what other people posted and it just grew from there. Many of the original Shelties have passed on, but it's still a good reflection. The spreadsheet is predominantly American dogs - I think if you did one with mainly European/British, or even Australian Shelties the median would be lower. We get almost as many small Shelties as big ones in Australia - breeders are here are really obsessed about height, although I think the British Shelties are getting a little too foxy or Pomeranian looking. Or maybe you just feed them better over there!
 
I tracked Brodie's weight an height weekly until he was 31 weeks old using the height and weight charts from this site....

http://bowlingsite.mcf.com/Size/size.html

I will tell you that Brodie was 12 3/4" at 17 weeks and weighed in at 10 lbs 6 oz. He completely stayed true to a growth curve up until I stopped weighing and measuring him. I just measured him and now at 40 weeks, he is at 15 1/2" - 15 3/4" and weighs in at 19.8 lbs - give or take a few ounces (he was wiggly).

Love the name Rona!!!!
 
The size standard is actually 13 - 16 inches. Yes you will have a plus-sized girl, but we love them over-sized. More to love! :biggrin2: Our biggest girl was Asta who was 18 inches and about 28 pounds. Shelties are a breed where the size can really vary in each litter, no matter the size of mom and dad. Drives the breeders crazy, but that's where our pets come from!!
 
Clarabelle is around 13, Tara is 15. Cooper is 16. Rocket is 17. Cassie is a wiggle butt who has legs that seem 6 feet long because she is in full coyote stage. But I think she's around Tara or Cooper's height.

Also- as long as you don't try to make me learn math or statistics, Welcome to the Boards! Although you will probably appreciate a side story. My husband is a math genius. He overheard a teen and his dad arguing about a math problem. He leaned over and said, "Actually, the correct answer is 1.52467." The jaws of both dropped, the dad yelled, "YOU GOT SCHOOLED" and we returned to dinner while the kid whipped out his calculator to figure out the answer. Husband said, "That was actually a really easy one." I replied, "For some people- yes. For me, the difference between Their, There and They're is easy."
 
One reason that there are bigger shelties in the spreadsheet is the breeders can tell earlier that the bigger ones will be oversize and sell those as pets first. Most of us on here don't have show dogs so we are more likely to have the larger shelties that the breeders didn't keep to grow out to see if they will stay in size.....
 
Sandy in CT said:
Love the name Rona!!!!
Click to expand...

Thank you! Rona (as you may know) is an island (in fact, there are two so-named islands--a North Rona and a South Rona) off the coast of Scotland; but, sadly, neither is one of the Shetland Isles. We considered using the Gaelic spelling (Rònaigh) but some of the family thought that would be a bit much!
 
Calliesmom said:
One reason that there are bigger shelties in the spreadsheet is the breeders can tell earlier that the bigger ones will be oversize and sell those as pets first. Most of us on here don't have show dogs so we are more likely to have the larger shelties that the breeders didn't keep to grow out to see if they will stay in size.....
Click to expand...

Good observation! Thanks!
 
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