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What’s the difference between toy shelties, and standard size shelties?
Toy/Mini sized shelties are fabulous family dogs and gaining a lot of popularity due to their convenient smaller travel size making them suitable for all family lifestyles whether in apartment living or farm living!
Toy/Mini Shelties are not officially recognized by the AKC as a separate breed yet, but are still registered as regular AKC Shetland Sheepdogs. This breed ranges wildly in size so we have simply given them their nickname to differentiate the fact that they are specifically bred to be smaller than most.
Why are they smaller though?
Fun fact: Toy-size shelties are actually the result of genetics from the original size shelties bred and developed in the Shetland Isles.
Only when they were imported to the US in the 1930-1950's did their size increase.
Americans thought they looked like tiny Collies, so they bred those with the imported dogs to solidify the type.
In order to keep the smaller UK/British style sheltie, toy size breeders select AKC Shetland Sheepdogs lines with those particular features, and less of America‘s version.
Not that they aren’t beautiful to, but because we love the tiny faces and build of the toy size.
The sheltie standard is 13”-16” 15-25lbs, with many often going way oversized.
For our toy size sheltie goal we strive for under 13”.
Toy shelties are characterized by their height, rather than weight. This is because theirs so many different builds they can have.
You can end up with a lean & petite sheltie which would yield a much smaller 8-10lb sheltie, or you can get a short but solid & muscular build which might mean a 12-15lb sheltie and even more if your not taking close care in their feeding regime, as toy sized shelties are prone to getting overweight easily like most smaller dogs can.
Please keep in mind that although parents are toy/mini size, they can still have larger mini puppies in the same litter. This is due to the large range of size in sheltie genetics. Sometimes they’ll throw you a curve ball lol.
But with that said, even my occasional larger puppies tend to stay under 13.5” tall.
I cannot guarantee size though, I can only give my best estimates.
I can often help direct puppy clients to particular puppies who are the smallest or have a particular build to best suit what they are looking for.
We know there are so many people just like us who desire these smaller shelties, and we will continue to hope they may one day be accepted into their own special group category.
We encourage you, if you agree and love the smaller shelties, to join The Toy Sheltie Club of America.
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