Quest for a Sheltie’s Love

There was someone missing in our home. It was too quiet. The barks didn’t come after the oven or microwave beeped. Subconsciously I kept waiting for the excited barks whenever I’m in the kitchen. The soft pitter-patter sound of paws against the floor was not there. Then my husband had one too many headaches from shedding tears for his buddy of 12 years.

We believe that only another Sheltie can mend our broken hearts and so the quest began… starting point: Google. I never googled up Shelties before, just never occurred to me until our Little C passed away. Oh did I find so many things that I have never known before!

Why a Sheltie? Shelties are just simply addictive! Besides the fact that they make you smile just by looking at their smiley faces and inquisitive eyes, they are a highly intelligent breed. They ranked 6th out of 132 breeds that make them ideal for companionship due to being trainable and sociable. They bond so well with their humans that they are very sensitive to their human’s feeling.

“He is your partner, your defender, your dog.
You are his love, his leader.
He will be yours, faithful and true to the last beat of his heart.
You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.” - sheltie-stories.com

I am most thankful for being able to find a special Sheltie mom who has a very informative and helpful website with lots of awesome photos of her gorgeous fur-kids. Another good find is blog dedicated to bring Sheltie humans together: Sheltie Nation, it’s a joy to see many happy Sheltie faces.

How much is that doggie in the window? Buying puppies from a pet store is a no-no for they most likely come from puppy mills. Reputable breeders don’t sell their puppies on pet stores. Who knew that puppy mills existed? It was shocking news to me. Puppy mills are large breeding facilities that make puppies just for profit without any regard for the health and treatment of the dogs. The dogs live in deplorable conditions and puppies who come from these places will have health issues due to genetic defects brought about by in-breeding and over-breeding(to put it mildly, they don’t care if they breed closely related dogs, same concept why marrying a close relative is a taboo in humans). Our Little C came from a pet store and it’s heart breaking to know that his health issues have been due to greed. Help put an end to puppy mills, do not buy puppies from pet stores.

Sheltie Rescues: For the love of the breed, there are golden hearted people who work hard dedicated to save and find forever homes for abandoned Shelties. They volunteer their time to rescue, foster and coordinate adoption. And boy are they strict(as they should be)! I contacted different Sheltie Rescues around our area within 3 hour drive and they wouldn’t let us adopt unless we met the rigid requirements. Some of the Shelties have some issues due to the kind of treatment they’ve had before and they need more TLC. I almost had to beg one Rescue Center to let us adopt Brody- a 19 month old who looked so much as our Little C but we didn’t qualify for he needed a fenced yard. Then 2 weeks later, there was a call! A one year old being given up for adoption because his humans are going to have another baby(in two months) and the young naturally rambunctious laddie already tripped their 2 year old toddler. So we were set for an appointment for a Tuesday to meet Nathan. Then an email came to say that Nathan’s humans found a home for him. Butter-cupped! He wasn’t destined for us. We are open to adopt should a match comes along.

BYB(Backyard breeders) vs Top Notch Breeders: I learned that pure bred parents doesn’t necessarily mean a well bred puppy. What separates the 2 kinds of breeders is the passion to improve the breed(breeding out the known inherited deceases by getting genetic testing on the candidate parent dogs(which is costly) and only the top dogs are allowed in the gene pool). Since the science of genetics plays the starring role of the pedigree, reputable breeders will be able to trace the bloodline of the puppy. How important is that? Knowing the pedigree of the dog allows you to calculate the level of in-breeding. You have a higher chance of getting a healthy puppy if the calculated level is low.

My search for a Sheltie puppy took me to different places(via Internet), there were puppies in Ohio, Vermont, Florida, Georgia, upstate New York, Pennysalvania, New Jersey, South Carolina… I guess you see the picture. Some were even willing to ship the puppy. Ship!?! How do they do that? I would think that it would be a very traumatic experience for a puppy to be treated like an ordinary cargo. We were set on having to travel to pick up the puppy wherever he/she might be.

From what I have observed, BYBs advertise on online pet ads, their price for a puppy is just slightly lower than of that of a kennel with a respected name. Since most reputable breeders don’t actively advertise, the best place to start is asking for recommendations from your local Sheltie Clubs. I found that they are most helpful.