cowanbree

About the same but the shelties are a lot more coat work than the aussies. Longer coat with more drapings to groom

Is this breed compatible with larger breeds? Does the breed need to be housed with similar sized breeds? I can only speak from my experience in owning 2 Australian Shepherds, they can be compatible with work. My aussies are too rough to be left unsupervised with the shelties but otherwise they do mix reasonably well. Their playing styles are completely different with aussie being quite a rough and physical breed while shelties prefer games of tag that don’t end up with them being squashed into the ground and jumped on. I am always conscious of the 15kg difference in size and they are kenneled separately while I am not there. ETA When placing shelties I do look seriously at the other dogs in the family for compatibility. In most cases I wouldn’t place 1 little sheltie with a lot of big dogs, it is an accident waiting to happen. When I first got my aussie she broke my shelties hip wrestling which seems to be a breed thing. Wrestling of any form is not allowed at my house Is The Shetland Sheepdog a generally loud breed? Are they very vocal? Sheltes can be quite a vocal breed which makes them wonderful guard dogs, no stranger would ever sneak up to my house. Excessive barking can be an issue if they are not trained or they are bored.

Aussie Shepherd. It is mainly on his tummy and legs but even his ruff has a yellow tinge to it

1. What is my relationship with the breed? (ie breeder, first time owner etc) Owner/Breeder/Exhibitor for over 25years 4. What is the average lifespan? Shelties are quite a healthy breed and would average 14-16 years with some living even longer 5. What is the general temperament/personality? The breed stand reads affectionate and responsive to his owner, reserved towards strangers but never nervous. Temperament can be an issue in our breed. Reserved does not mean timid and it is important when considering this breed to meet the breeder and her dogs and see what the temperaments are like. Don’t expect them to bound towards you wanting a pat but they should stand their ground. That said the end temperament of a dog also depends a lot on the socialization it received early in life. 6. How much daily exercise is needed for the average adult? They are a working breed and as such do need to be exercised but I find shelties very adaptable. If I want to spend 4 hours doing a bush walk they are more than happy to accompany me but if time is of an essence a 20 minute walk will suffice. They are not however suitable jogging or biking companions. 7. Is it a breed that a first time dog owner could easily cope with? Yes in most cases. They are a very intelligent breed that is easily trained but their softer nature is not for everyone 8. Can solo dogs of this breed easily occupy themselves for long periods?Shelties are very bonded to their family and are best with company. A bored sheltie is a barking sheltie. 9. How much grooming is required? Their coat requires regular grooming at least weekly and bathed approximately every 6 weeks. The weekly grooming would only take about 15minutes but the bath and drying would take at least 1 hour 10. Is it too boisterous for very small children or for infirm people (unless the dog is well trained)? No they are not too boisterous but I hesitate to place puppies with families that have children under 6years. They are not a particularly sturdy breed and often children are too rough for them 11. Are there any common hereditary problems a puppy buyer should be aware of? Shelties are commonly eye tested and more recently a lot of breeders are hip and elbow testing 12. When buying a puppy, what are the things you should ask of the breeder? (eg what health tests have been done (if applicable) and what is an acceptable result to those tests so the buyer has an idea of what the result should be) What health tests have been done. Shelties are commonly affected by CEA which is non progressive but any other eye disorders would be of concern. The average hip score is around 9. What are the temperament of the parents like Are the puppies being raised in the house (socialization is extremely important in this breed)

I have just purchased a young dog and he has quite stained whites. I have bathed him several times but they are still quite yellow looking. Can anyone recommend something to help with this? I was wondering about using Sards wonder soap?

The vet is only going to give him something to relax the dog which doesn't work. I would try the sealegs, I use them myself as I get car sick even if I am driving

They do generally grow out of it but in the meantime I would try something like sealegs. I use it on my show dogs, it is non drowsy and I have yet to have one vomit after using them. After the dogs has had a few good experiences they get a lot better.

I very nearly lost my Mac to this. We had tried everything the vet could throw at us and nothing helped, he had basically lost all control of his bowels. The vet told me to pts but as a last shot I contacted a homeopath. She asked me to blood test him and run a T4 which showed his thyroid was extremely low. He had a complete diet change, started thyroid meds and was on 2 mixtures from the homeopath as well as probotics. He is about 95% better, still has the occasional bout but currently other than thyroid meds it is controlled by diet. Also cleared up most of his skin issues

The one comment I would make is that while I have no issue with mark up it would be nice if the vet would let me know that there are cheaper alternatives for long term medication. I am not going to quibble over a tube of eye ointment but when it is costing $96 for a months supply of meds that my dog will need for life via my vet I don’t think I should have to find out from a friend that I can get the same meds from the chemist at around 1/3 the price.

7kgs is quite light for a sheltie. Mine around the same size would be around 8kg going up to 9kg for some of the larger ones. Also I don't use pin brushes on my show dogs, only Mason and Pearsons

That is very strange. I have done about 20 plus debarks and never had any serious issues and know a lot of other breeders who debark and haven't heard of this before.

Not overly realistic. Standard mark up for anything in the business world would be 1/3 cost, 1/3 overheads and 1/3 profit and vets are in business to make profit as well. My vet has about a 50% mark up plus consult and I think that is reasonable

How lean is she? Sometimes dogs that are on the lean side need more to grow coat. Also what are you brushing her with?

Unfortunately coat is genetic and must be bred for. Are her parents well coated? There is certainly things you can do to promote coat growth but in the end they either have it or they don’t. I have had issues with one of my boys and starting adding a bit of mutton to his diet. Not only has this help get some weight on him but his coat is looking far better.

Are you feeding what the breeder was? If not the best thing you can do is swap back to that. A sudden diet change in young puppies is a sure fire way to upset the tummy

Another option might be tethering him to you when you can’t give him your complete attention. That way he isn’t crated all the time but it would be very hard for him to toilet inside without you knowing. I have found this very effective.

When I have had this issue in the past my vet said oral antibiotics were often not enough so in addition he gave me some of the mastitis cream you use on cows that comes in a syringe. I hade to squirt some up there twice a day as well as oral antibiotics and it cleared up really well. It did take a while though

Anywhere between 12-15 yrs would be a good innings for a large dog. Small dogs to tend to live longer but even in my shelties 14-16yrs is about normal

Try a snood. People with long haired dogs use the all the time

I have been fighting allergy issues with my boy Mac for over 4yrs. I had tried just about everything on your list including skin specialist, allergy tests, elimination diets and every supplement under the sun all with minimal success. Finally I gave up and decided perhaps it wasn’t something I could cure but rather just try and keep under control using pred to control the scratching and hot spots, antibiotics to stop the constant yeast infects and medicated baths to keep him as well as possible. He lost a huge amount of weight and muscle tone, was losing all his coat and just looked dreadful. I took him into my vet and said we have to do something, this is no life. He said you know I have just read an article about thyroid issues, lets retest him. I personally thought it was a waste of money as he had been tested some time ago and he was in the normal range, on the low side but still in the normal range. This time he came back at 14 with normal being 20-66. We started him on meds and he has had one hotspot in the last 7mths. So my moral of the story is if you have skin issues test the thyroid and if it is in the bottom 1/3 of normal or lower try supplementation for minimum of 3mths (takes ages to work) Mac was a normal dog until 3ish which also indicates it was never allergies

I have and they worked well but then so did adding a bit of water and that was a lot cheaper

I used the one that comes in a syrup and starts with p with my old boy. Vet said it shouldn't work with males but it does sometimes so worth a try

There are times when this is very handy, my vet does home visits. Generally I use them when I have babies needing vaccinations etc that I really don’t want to take in or for home euthanasia. Cost wise it isn’t too bad, $100 vs $45 so while I certainly wouldn’t want to use it all the time there are times it is a great service to have

I buy my thyroid meds from the chemist. They are about 1/2 normal price and actually cheaper than my vet can buy them in for

True but over here in NZ we still get the original formula in exactly the same bag. I can’t really understand how they can change the formula and yet call them the same thing in the same packaging