February 12, 2019
When Beau developed a seizure disorder last month, I was – and remain – devastated at the thought of losing him much sooner than I had foreseen. I’ve mentioned in other posts how hard this is, but one of the reasons it walloped me is because Beau is my last Sheltie.
From 1989 until 2009, I owned *only* Shelties. I raised them from puppies (Briar Rose, Sander, Sundance, Pippi, Shiri); I rescued them as seniors (Angus, Rudy, Guy, Banjo, Irwin). My neighbors referred to me as ‘the Sheltie lady.’ All Shelties, all the time, that was my house!
In 2009 I adopted a senior Finnish Lapphund, Heikki (Mikey), and for the first few months he was in my house, I would start with surprise on catching a glimpse of him and have a ‘what’s that?’ reaction for a split second: he wasn’t a Sheltie!
Then in 2010 I adopted a young Border Collie (Rowley), because I needed an agility dog and I didn’t think I could find a Sheltie with the temperament and structure for it; and anyway, I had long wanted a BC. So Rowley has been my agility dog ever since, and he is, no question, the best agility dog ever, bar none. If he had a better handler, he would have piles and piles of advanced titles! But we get by and he loves his twice-weekly agility classes.
After that, when Mikey left us, a young Lapphund came to stay, and introduced me to Nosework and other things Lappy, and now I can’t imagine my life without a Finnish Lapphund!
And in 2014, I adopted a mixed-breed, Dee, who turned out to be mostly (44%) Sheltie but is not anything like a Sheltie in the overall package. Biddable and gentle? Ha ha, not Miss Dee!
And somehow, in that, Beau – who joined us in 2012 – is now the only Sheltie I have! I’ve been giving away a lot of my Sheltie-themed stuff, since I’m not really a ‘Sheltie person’ anymore … and I haven’t worked a Sheltie since I trained Shiri in agility, so many years ago. But when I thought of having no Shelties in my family after Beau, I was gobsmacked. And watching the Masters Agility Trials at Westminster recently, I was reflecting on the fact that Rowley will turn 10 in a few months, and at some point he won’t be as active in agility as he is now; and that made me sad, too. I’ve trained my dogs, and trialed them some, in agility since 1993. I have no plans to stop doing agility anytime soon.
And then the two pieces fit together perfectly and showed me a picture of the future: I will get an agility Sheltie! Beau will NOT be my last Sheltie, and I will start a Sheltie puppy in agility in the near future!
Wait a minute, the buzzkill side of me said, a second Lapphund is joining your family this year. Do you want to have five dogs even post-Beau? I gave my buzzkill side an admonitory smack. I’m not going to start a 6-year old dog, one with whom I have no training history, in agility. I have plans to start Siili in nosework, which I believe she will enjoy. If she enjoys it to the extent that Alex does, I will trial her as I trial him. Siili is an awesome dog and will add a lot to my group, and I look forward to her arrival this spring, but she is not my next agility dog.
Rowley is still my agility dog, there is a ‘no vacancy’ sign on that position this year, and most likely next year too. But then …?
So I went to the assa.org website and looked for breeders near me, and then I started ruling out the breeders near me. Too many of them have lines from a particular Big Name Sheltie Breeder in this area that I want to avoid: I had one of her dogs, and his structural issues were as bad as his breeder’s lack of ethics. No more of that. (Let me just ask: if YOU had a 2-year old dog from a breeder, and that dog’s sire was conclusively diagnosed by biopsy with a heritable autoimmune disease, and the breeder did not tell you because she ‘didn’t want you to worry’ – would you consider that breeder an honest person? I wouldn’t, and I didn’t. And that wasn’t even the half of it. Oh no, not going near THOSE bloodlines again, ever. My mistrust extends to the breeders who bred to the kennel of my dog’s breeder.)
So that’s where it is: I’m on a puppy list for a spring 2020 breeding by a kennel that has some really nice-looking agility Shelties on its website. I’m looking at other breeders, too, and asking them about their dogs. I’m a bit perplexed by breeders who have no website or social media page: that’s such a good way to find out what and how they breed, and pedigrees tell me more than any sales pitch. If you’re a hobby breeder and have no cyberspace profile or presence, what would induce me to consider your dogs, if I’m a person who wants certain things in a dog? Oh well. I’ll keep on looking! I’m in no hurry. Have you seen the video on FB of Amy Brastad, age 92, doing an Excellent Jumpers run with her Sheltie at an agility trial? She’s not just my hero, she’s my role model!
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