Sheltie lifespan

Justicemom

Justicemom

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A question occured to my mind as I was reading all the birthday posts. What are you experienced Shelties people seeing for lifespans?

Not to be morbid, and generally not a topic I like talking about because our dogs should live forever. But in private practice, Shelties tend to do pretty well compared to similar sized breeds where 12yrs is avg. The shelties I've seen about 14yrs(all types of owners)

I just realized that Justice's mom turns 12yrs in a month and that the entire litter(of 4)is still alive and doing great. His great grandpa(Ember and Diva's great great grandpa) lived to 17.5yrs(passed from heart disease-sudden), his grandma to 16yrs(passed of kidney disease) and his grandpa is still alive at 15yrs doing great but deaf. I hope my dogs do as well.:smile2: J turns 8 next month so I realized he is offically a senior according to all registries for performance events.:(
 
Bailey promised me 25 years! I know Bailey has a great-grandma, who is currently 15 years old. Many of her relatives lived to 13-15 years.

My first sheltie was only 8 years old. She was from a pet store :cry:
 
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Hamish was 11 when he died but he had suffered from pancreaitits for 3+ years. Noah was nine but he had not been well for the entire summer last year. Not sure what their parents etc. ages were.

Emma's has a long line of dogs living to 14 or more years, provided they are in good health. Her grandmother is still going strong at 10 years. The breeder just lost two of Emma great-aunts at 12 this spring due to illness. The breeder doesn't have the information on her website now about some of the dogs'age but she did have.
 
I'd like to know too.

Interesting thread!

Milo was my family's first sheltie and he is eight and doing very well. Sadie and Ginny are both still young..

I've heard mixed things about shelties, regarding life span.

I've had a number of people tell me that they're very short lived. Just last weekend when we were searching for plants with Sadie and Ginny a couple approached us and told us that their sheltie passed away a year ago of cancer at the age of six (I don't remember what type of cancer). That is not the first time I've heard of shelties dying young.

At the same time, I've had people approach us and comment about how long lived shelties are. I've heard of them living to be 17 before.

So which is it? Long life or short?
 
I've always heard that average Sheltie lifespan is 15. But every single one of ours, with the exception of Ivy who died at 10 last year from bladder cancer, passed at age 13. It's almost spooky. I guess 13 isn't bad, but it's always too soon as we know.
 
My first sheltie, Samantha, was 13 when she passed (kidney failure). My Katie is now 13 (3/24) and going strong - a happy and healthy girl. I told my vet I am going to have the first 30 year old sheltie!!
A friend of mine had a beautiful merle sheltie who made it to 18.
I think the oldest sheltie on record was 20.
I wish they had long lifespans (20+) too, but then again, for us rescue sheltie owners, it gives more of them a chance to find loving homes.
My Laddie is 4 - I hope he goes well into his "teens" too!
 
Interesting question! I've also read somewhere that the average is 15. My first sheltie lived to be 15 and she was hyperthryoid and had vWD.
 
My first sheltie, Blossom, was 14 years old when she passed from a brain tumor.

My second Sheltie, Poppy, passed when she was 13.

Chloe's dad, Bravo, is over 17 years old. So...I am hoping for at least that with my Clo-bear.
 
My other Sheltie, Abigail, was 13 when she passed. Buffy's family seems to live to around 13 or 14.
 
It has always intrigued me that Rudyard Kipling's famous lines-

'When the fourteen years which nature permits are closing in asthma, or tumors, or fits,
And the vet's unspoken prescription runs to lethal chambers and loaded guns,
It's up to you, it's your own affair...
But you've given your heart to a dog to tear'

was written what, about 1890?
And for all our advances in nutrition, preventative medicine etc., it's STILL about 14 years for an average sized dog.
Just thinking empirically, I would have to guess that my Sheltie patients tend to age better than most until about 11, then tend to fall off and 'not age well' a little more than most their size.

Skye is now 9 ( I can NOT believe that - but then I can't believe that I am... well, whatever), and I have full expectations that she is just 'starting on the back nine.' :wink2: - Dr. Mac
 
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