sable dominance in shelties over 15 years

SHETLAND SHEEPDOGS - SPECIAL FEATURE

SABLE DOMINANCE IN NUMBER OF CHAMPIONS OVER LAST 15 YEARS

In "Dog World" 9th February 2001, one of the Sheltie breed notes correspondents stated that Jean Tuck had taken the trouble to analyse the colours starting with 1985. Data had been extracted from the English Shetland Sheepdog Club (ESSC) handbooks. In the 1985 book there were 76 champions, of which 59 were sables, 10 were tri colours and seven were blue merles. There was also the last black and white Challenge Certificate (CC) winner, Pruneparks Easter Bonnet of Joymere.

In the 1990 book, there were also 76 champions, 44 of which were sables, 19 were tri colours, and 13 were blue merles. Therefore, over the period of five years there was a slight increase in the number of tri colours and blue merle champions.

The 1995 book saw an increase in the number of champions to 78, - 52 sables, 10 tri colours and 16 blue merles.

There were 60 champions in the 2000 yearbook comprising of 45 sables, just 4 tri colours and 11 blue merles. The tri colours were Felthorn Magpie, Iliad Idiots Delight, Edglonian Rather Dashing and Shelderon New Moon, the last three being made up to champions in 1999, so after Felthorn Magpie in 1995, there were no new tri coloured champions until 1999.

Jean Tuck considers that possibly one of the reasons as to why this is happening is that reading the breed notes each week there is a great deal of discussion as to whether some of the current judges can identify true conformation and movement. If this is so then these judges then have to look for other outward reasons, including coat, expression, ears and so on. This would then give a poor moving dog with neat ears a better chance than a good moving dog with possibly a slightly round eye and heavier ears.

Similar thoughts have been suggested by Joyce Shotton, the breeder of one of last year's blue merle champions, Hillhead Blue Shadow. Joyce recalls that around 40 years ago when she first came into the breed, someone commented that there was no such thing as a good tri colour, which as she had only that colour at the time, needled her somewhat.

Following this, Joyce looked long and hard at her own dogs and concluded that although size, construction and movement were good, the expressions compared to sables, were harder. This can also apply to blue merles in some instances as their facial markings and colour of eyes can sometimes detract from the desired Sheltie expression.

The breed correspondent has a very good friend, who bred some super Shelties including several champions, but only sables. This friend once commented that that she could never "see" a blue merle when judging so this was questioned by the correspondent as to whether she should be accepting judging appointments when she could not see the qualities of a blue merle. The two did not fall out over this, stuck to their guns, and agreed to disagree!

In the Sheltie breed there are more non-specialist judges being appointed to award CC's , and this may be another reason why the sables dominate. It is well known that if a prospective new Sheltie owner phones to make an enquiry, they almost always ask for sables, often making the comment that they wouldn't want a tri or a blue, which must mean to the untrained eye, sables in general, have more appeal.