Most popular size of Shelties?

L

Lacey'sMamma

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Just thought I would do a poll thread for the size of all of your shelties, just to see maybe whats the most popular. All I ever see where I live are oversized shelties that my girl can walk under!

My Lacey is X-Small (undersized) : 11 inches, 13 pounds
 
Lacey'sMamma said:
Just thought I would do a poll thread for the size of all of your shelties, just to see maybe whats the most popular. All I ever see where I live are oversized shelties that my girl can walk under!

My Lacey is X-Small (undersized) : 11 inches, 13 pounds
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I agree that the majority of shelties where I am are oversized. Almost everyone I know comments on our "mini shelties" and they are barely in-size (15")!

I think it's a product of most people not knowing the standard and a lot of BYBs. Not to say that all dogs that are oversized are from BYBs (they definitely can come out of any litter!) but I think most show breeders at least try to breed for in-size dogs whereas BYBs will breed dogs that don't necessarily fit the size standard.
 
Here's a question. If so many shelties are considered to be 'oversized,' maybe the breed standard needs to change?

I see mostly over sized shelties in my area as well. Two of mine are over sized, then there's Ginny who's only 14." Everyone thinks she's a puppy or a mini sheltie.
 
OntarioSheltie said:
Here's a question. If so many shelties are considered to be 'oversized,' maybe the breed standard needs to change?
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The thing is, we need to breed to the Standard, not change the Standard to reflect the dogs that we happen to produce. The Standard describes the ideal Sheltie - not the most common Sheltie type.

Size is one of the things that characterizes the Shetland Sheepdog - it is small. In particular, it is smaller than a Collie (and likewise, the ideal Collie should be large enough that there is no confusion whatsoever at first glance as to whether it's a Collie or a Sheltie). At the same time, the ideal Sheltie is not so small that there could be any confusion as to whether it is a Toy dog.

Size is something that Sheltie breeders have been working with for a very long time. I think we've gotten better at controlling it. Those who are conscientiously breeding to the Standard will still get some over- or under-sized puppies - but with some care and good genes it's quite possible to produce a lovely, typey, in-size Sheltie.
 
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Both mine are Smallish Cosmo is 14" and I think that Storm will probably
ring in around the same or just a bit smaller when it's all said and done.
I know that when I am running Cosmo against some of the competition in the same agility jump class as Cosmo,
it looks like someone cut him off at the knees He has a short neck ( make that almost no neck) and shorter legs compared other shelties & to Storm who even as a pup
has much longer legs & neck but at the shoulder hight will probably be the same or very close to Cosmo when measured.

Cosmo's structure tends to make him sort of Corgie looking long & low where as Storm legs are longer & she is higher off the ground and the long neck make her look bigger when she really isn't.
 
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tofu pup said:
Size is something that Sheltie breeders have been working with for a very long time. I think we've gotten better at controlling it. Those who are conscientiously breeding to the Standard will still get some over- or under-sized puppies - but with some care and good genes it's quite possible to produce a lovely, typey, in-size Sheltie.
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Exactly... and while there are still size variations in each litter, its more refined than say 25 years ago...while one may be over, it will be under that 17" mark...and under will be mostly right around that 13" mark...The smaller ones that are mostly placed as pets are typically in the 13" range, since it is harder to get a smaller dog noticed, so to keep it in your program you need it to be REALLLY outstanding to justify keeping and showing it.
 
I suppose that makes sense. I guess all of the over sized shelties I see are the ones who grew too big and went to pet homes, or were bred by byb or puppy mills.
 
OntarioSheltie said:
I suppose that makes sense. I guess all of the over sized shelties I see are the ones who grew too big and went to pet homes, or were bred by byb or puppy mills.
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I agree, breeders give the oversize or undersized shelties to family homes first and then offer avaliables later one, the ones my breeder couldn't use for show or as shelties to breed are the ones I took in. But I think that's obvious and expected. I didn't mind a large sheltie though because our whole family is mega tall. Might explain why Precious right now (who eveyrone likes to call Little Precious or mini sheltie) had a more skiddish time fitting in with the giants hahah ANyways, yah that might explain why we see more of the bigger ones around, not always because of BYBs but just because they're the ones that went to good family pet homes :)
 
Hamish was in size - I can't remember what height he was but he was shown in the late 80's. Noah was over 16" I think. Emma is right around 16" and so is Liam. Both are of the size that they could have be shown if the breeder had wanted to. Emma however has an underbite and couldn't be shown. At the time I got Liam, the breeder was retiring (although she did change her mind). I have seen Shelties of all sizes over the years.
 
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