Sheltie? Or not?

So some lady on craigslist claims this to be a purebred, AKC show quality Sheltie. She of course is selling her for a bundle of money.

I am curious, because I emailed her...
Shelties cannot have blue eyes unless they are Merle right? Is this something that would disqualify them from being shown? This dog also doesn't appear to have the typical double coat. Something else just screams badly bred dog to me.

There is also a sable merle which could potentially have blue eyes. A regular sable should not, though. My guess is the dog is a sable merle. Soemtimes it's hard to tell the difference between sables and sable merles. It's often easier when the dog is a young puppy. I'm surprised she didn't mark that as it's very important to keep track of merles as a merle to merle breeding can have disastrous consequences for the pups. It looks like you might be able to see the merling on that dog's ears.

I would also be wary of someone selling any sheltie for a 'bundle of money' because quite frankly shelties aren't one of the most expensive to purchase breeds out there. Our male was only $400 and out of one of the top all time sires in the breed, but he was not show quality. I'd ask for pedigrees, health certificates, does she do any sports with her shelties at all? Herding titles, conformation titles, agility, obedience? Genetic screenings?

Seeing the picture I'm a bit skeptical as well, but shelties do go through a really gangly stage where they have no coat. I call it the 'uglies'. The dog is obviously a sheltie, but as to breeding I wouldn't just take anyone's word on it without having proof via pedigrees and health certificates.

Anyone can say a dog is show quality when they honestly don't have a clue what that means.

Well I asked her a bunch of questions, also complimenting how cute the dog is, because she is. I just questioned the eye/coat color as well as a few other things. I got the nastiest, curse-word filled response back, with a link to their breeding website which was a non-existent site, and told that her grandma was a merle and so that is why she has blue eyes. The woman says she is a Sable not a merle specifically.

I don't know, I don't believe her one bit but whatever, I was more curious then anything.

The coat looks odd to me too... even for the awkward stage, it looks very smooth! But there are two coat types for shelties - Auggie is quite heavily coated, but there's also a fitted coat, and usually females have that fitted coat appearance... maybe females in the awkward stage would tend to look more like that? It could just be that's her coat type. I'd like to see more pictures of her...
I have a few photos of Auggie in his awkward stage and he still looks fuzzy - actually, I think if you go to my profile, the picture of me holding Auggie is him in his really awkward stage (I think.) But like I said, maybe it's just different coat types..?


How much is this woman wanting to sell her for, if you don't mind saying? Honestly, alarm bells are going off to me that she's saying this girl is show quality and yet is advertising her on craigslist...

Exactly. I am not going to "adopt" or "buy" her. I am more curious then anything. I know someone who was looking for a Sheltie so I emailed this lady with some questions. I have never had an email conversation that was so unnecessarily nasty. Its almost funny how defensive and rude she got.

She said "HER GRAMA IS A MEARL YOU DUMB @$$ I KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT SHE LOOKS JUST LIKE LASY! B*TCH SHUT UP.

Haha, very mature.

Oh and as to how much she costs?

AND YOU WILL NOT BE GETTING HER. NEVER IN YOUR LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I KNOW MORE ABOUT THEM THEN YOU DO SO DONT TELL ME YOU B*TCH
I AM NO LIER EATHER SO PEACE B*TCH

I don't recall saying anything about her being a liar...must be a guilty conscience.

Good Lord, if that's the response you get, run away very fast. There's no way in h.e.l.l. I'd purchase a puppy from her. I might be weird, but I want to have good vibes from the breeder. The places I got my dogs from weren't fancy at all, but I liked the breeder. And I've called them when I had some questions or problems and both were happy to talk to me.

My last dog was about $350--nine years ago. When I bought my girl last winter she was $700. Give or take fifty dollars that was the amount I was quoted when I called around for sheltie pups.

My last one had a very heavy coat, but Breezey doesn't. One neighbour has a sheltie and his coat is even fuller than my previous sheltie's.

Not that it couldn't be true, but I've never seen a sable with blue eyes.

Well like I said she says that the grandpa is merle, so she would be carrying the merle gene. So why do the blue eyes show and nothing else? It just seems weird. Maybe that can happen, I don't doubt it, but wouldn't that disqualify her from being shown?

Anyways, the purpose of craigslist is to rehome dogs, not sell them. I replied to her post because I am interested in RESCUE. So not I wouldn't purchase from her even if she was a good breeder (nothing against reputable breeders, its just not my thing). I just thought it was a rescued pup in need of a home.

Now I just realized that her post was flagged and removed so of course she is going to think that was all me. Even though it takes a lot of people to flag for a post to be removed.

Soemtimes eyes or one little spot on the ears is all you see on a sable merle after they get older. It's usually easier to tell as a pup. For example look at Tanner, who is a sable merle:

http://www.laureate.ca/tanner.html

He really doesn't look it.

I don't *think* sable merles with blue eyes can be shown, but don't quote me on that. I've never had a show sheltie before.

Also, Nikki had a coat much like that during the uglies. Really short and close fitting. But she was also from a BYB so that could be it.

Yikes - it's a good thing that post was removed. Scary lady.
I double-checked the standard, and only blue merles can be shown with blue eyes... so a sable merle with blue eyes would not be show standard. But I expect if you told that woman so, she'd fly off the handle, LOL!

Laurelin, I would LOVE to see baby Nikki pictures if you have any! =3

There is a sheltie I've seen in the past couple of weeks - she's a rescue so we know little about her history or breeding, but she has a fitted coat. It literally looks like she's had her hair cut short, but that's just her natural coat. I've never seen anything like it before. I wouldn't be surprised if, because of the relatively recent changes to the breed, coat length (and texture) was just as varied in shelties as height is, honestly... I'd be really interested to investigate that more closely.

It keeps getting flagged and she keeps reposting it. She is probably convinced its all me. She stopped emailing once the first one was removed. Funny because her last email she actually apologized for being so nasty but still was very snippy in her reply. Whatever, she wants $400 for the puppy.

What's the link?

Well, $400 is not a bundle of money for a sheltie... BYBs usually list their puppies in the paper for $400-$600, around here anyway. I'm sure it's too much for THAT dog, but that's probably where she's getting that number.

Her post is likely getting deleted because craigslist is not for selling dogs - just for rehoming, and charging a "rehoming" fee or something like that. Maybe she'll catch on after a while, but I'm sure she'll just turn to another venue instead...

Wow! Shelties have gone up in price! lol Twelve years ago we got ours from a BYB for $250 and a showline dog for $400!

As requested, here's a baby picture of Nikki:



I think she was something like 6 weeks there. (We got her way too young)


About a year, I think.

And the 'uglies' lol:

The price of Shelties has indeed changed. BYB is $300-$400, pet quality show line is $500-$800 and show quality is above $800.

As for the original pup, could be a BYB sable merle.