Shetland Sheepdog Information & Dog Breed Facts

The Shetland Sheepdog, also called the Sheltie, comes from the Shetland Islands, which are placed between Scotland and Norway. These islands are home to other small breeds of animals such as the Shetland Ponies and the Shetland Sheep. However, there are several stories about the origin of this breed. Some people strongly believe that the original stock consisted of Scandinavian herding dogs from the same stock as the Norwegian Buhund or the Icelandic Dog. Usually, the Nordic herding dogs are rarely mentioned in the breed’s history but historians believe that the original Norse settlers brought along their dogs with their small sheep, cows, and horses. For many years, the Shetland Sheepdog was called the ‘Toonie’, which came from the Norwegian word, meaning ‘farm’. Farmers bred the dogs crossing the Border Collie with smaller dogs to herd and protect the Shetland sheep. An example of the tasks of the Sheltie was to protect the small sheep from birds, which can explain why today’s Shelties seem to have a passion for chasing birds.

Moreover, in the early 19^th century, the Shetland Sheepdog was brought to England and Scotland, where they were described as a miniature Collie. On the islands, the farmers started breeding their small Shelties to be even smaller and fluffier. The reason behind this was that tourism became an important factor of the island and people thought that they could sell their little dogs to the tourist. According to researchers even Prince Charles Spaniels (a variety of the English Toy Spaniel) and Pomeranian dogs were left on the islands by tourists and later on were crossed with the native sheepdogs. However by the end of the 19^th century and early in the 20^th century, there was so much crossbreeding that the islanders realized that the original breed was vanishing. Some breeders believed that they needed to be crossed with Collies in order to regain the original type, others believed that they should breed only the existing Shelties who were closest to the original type and many people continued to crossbreed indiscriminately with other breeds to develop small, pretty pets. Shelties of all three types were exhibited through the first decade of the century and to some extent up to the First World War. In 1909 England’s Kennel Club recognized the breed and altogether 28 dogs were registered that year as Shetland Collies. Four of them still appear in the pedigrees of many modern champion Shelties: two males named Tim and Trim and two females named Topsy and Inga. Also, the first Sheltie to be registered by the American Kennel Club was Lord Scott in 1911. However, Collie breeders in England were not happy about the name of the breed so they protested against it which led to the change of the name to Shetland Sheepdog. The breed stirred up controversy both in England and in the United States for many years, with rumors of crossbreeding and long-running disagreements about what the breed should look like. As a result of this, many Shetland Sheepdog clubs were formed to support the different viewpoints. Finally, in 1930 the Scottish and English Clubs joined together and agreed that the dog “should resemble a collie (rough) in miniature”. American breeders imported Shelties from England until the 1950s, but by that time the American and the British Shelties started to diverge greatly in type and size. Today, almost all Shetland Sheepdogs in the USA are descended from the dogs that came from England between the two World Wars.

As the breed became more popular, its number increased in the US, and in the 1970s Shelties appeared on the American Kennel Club’s list of the ten most popular dogs. Today they rank 20^th in popularity among the 155 breeds registered by the AKC.