Sheltie in an apartment????

[Guest Anonymous]

Hi, guys
I'd like to know if somebody has or had an experience with a Sheltie (Shetland Sheepdog) in an apartment... I'm thinking in having one.
Any opinions???
Thanks Fernanda

[Hobbit]

Some of them BARK alot, NON-STOP bark, all day and all night. You must be willing to do lots of obedience training and keep up with it.

[Guest Anonymous]

:-? Now I'm worried about the barking problem... Do you think would be OK with the proper training? I heard that they are really easy at training and very intelligent!

[Guest roo]

We really need Ickle here to answer this one.
I will PM her
Roo

[Ickle]

A sheltie should be no problem in an apartment provided the owner has a regular routine and trains the sheltie to be quiet while it is growing up especially when it is left alone.The onus like any other dog is on the owner not laugh at the puppy barking or any other naughty habit because it not so cute when the are adults,
Plenty of exercise,love & training and you will have a sociabley acceptable pet.
Ps they are not the only dogs that bark if not trained to be otherwise
I have owned and bred them for more years than I care to remember & I run the sheltie rescue in England,
Best wishes & all success should you decide to take a sheltie into your family
Ickle

[Guest Anonymous]

Thank you guys, especially Ickle!!!!
:D
Now, I'm more relieved... I'm sure with plenty of time , exercise and love, should be OK to have a healthy, loving sheltie...
I'm really excited about this idea!!!
Thanks again!!!!

[yellowlabsrule]

I've never had one, but I've heard that they have lots of heath problems!
Here's a site that has ALL the good and bad of all or most breeds!
[url]http://www.yourpurebredpuppy.com/yppbook/index.html[/url]
It's REALLY good!

[Ickle]

yellowlabsrule
What a load of absolute rubbish
Shelties have no more problems than any other breed and a lot less than many others I could name. I do wonder sometimes about people who pass on these bits of tittle tattle. Do they know the damage they can do to a breed.
I have friends in many breeds and know they also have LOTS of problems which I would not dream of discussing because I have not owned them and will not talk about these things as I do not have the breed knowledge
Fernanda please talk to the most expirenced sheltie breeders you can find and ask them about anything that worries you.I am sure they can put your mind at rest.
As you know the breed in USA is quite different to the UK sheltie so I cannot speak for them since I have no nothing first hand of them apart from what I read in books but I am sure the reputable sheltie breeders in your home country can fill in all you need to know
Ickle

[Horsefeathers!]

Errrrr.... can I interject something here? Hopefully, this will not offend anyone.

I adore Shelties. All of them I have ever known have been wonderful little dogs with amazing personalities. My vet has one he adores. However, as mentioned above, most of them (I have ever known) have been pretty vocal.

Anyhoo, the thing I'm getting at is this... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be sure you have a back up plan [u]just in case[/u] your new Sheltie doesn't have his/her vocal nature trained away and since you will be living in such close proximity to other people who may not be dog lovers. Since someone on the board recently got rid of their dog because he barked too much, I just want you to please consider the possibility that you just may have a barker (ok, could be any breed, just for the sake of argument) and how you will handle it if it isn't trained out. I just don't want to see another dog looking for a new home because of barking, regardless of how well intentioned and optimistic one is about the training.

[Ickle]

I am afraid I do tend take offence when shelties are branded as barkers. As I said if you train them from the start not to bark for no good reason you should not have many problems.
Too many people think its funny to tease a puppy till it barks because they think it is so cute and funny to have such a little tyke telling them off but this only leads to the problems mentioned,(neighbour problems etc),It is people who make or break a breeds reputation. Sorry you have met some of the noisey ones.
Ickle

[shorty]

Hi I have a good freind who has been breeding and showing shelties for 15 years or so.I don't know where you are from,but she lives in Michigan.We have a dog chat every night from 9pm to 12am eastern time.She moderates the chats.Stop by sometime and I am sure she can answer all your questions for you.Click the link in my signature then go to the chat forum.There is a link to enter the chat there.Good luck. :D
Wendy

[Hobbit]

Ickle, maybe YOU are the lucky one that has been around very well bred and very well cared for (well trained) Shelties. That is wonderful. :wink:

The ones that some of us have been around, have been barkers. Probably due to bad breeding, bad owners, and no training.

Training helps any breed, but no amount of training can help bad genetics (to a certain degree).

[Guest Anonymous]

Thank you guys, I really love to talk with experience breeders, like Ickle!
Wendy, I'll stop by that chat room and by the way I live in NYC...
:wink:

[Horsefeathers!]

Ickle, it isn't just me. Sorry if I offended you, but even on many other forums, from groomers to pet owners to pet sitters, when Shelties are mentioned, it's almost followed by a comment on their vocal nature. I'm certainly not trying to "harm" a breed, but I do still believe that some breeds are more predisposed to some behaviors than others. For example, I know that Pit Bulls get a bad rap, BUT I am also aware that they do tend to be dog aggressive. I am not offended by that. Doesn't mean ALL Pit Bulls, but as a breed, they can be. Just one obvious example.

I would think that a lover of any breed would want to be sure that any new prospective owners would be fully capable of dealing with any [u]potential[/u] problems that may arise. That's the reason I said it could be ANY breed; just happened to be talking about Shelties. With this person living in an apartment, it's imperative that they have a plan of action in case there is barking behavior, regardless of whether it's a Sheltie or any other breed. I've seen far too many people with grand images of what training entails and, for whatever reason, it fails, whether it's the training, lack of commitment on an owner's part, or lack of funds (no one has ever started out saying, "ok, I'll try this training thing, but only if it's cheap, easy and quick." No one ever intends to fail.).

Here's what is at the heart of this for me and maybe you'll understand where I am coming from...

I don't know if you've been following the boards lately, but someone here recently got rid of their dog in favor of a new one (sorry, poster) because they claimed that the barking behavior couldn't be trained out of the dog. I just do not want to see another dog dumped.... errrr rehomed because someone "couldn't" train them properly ("I tried everything and nothing worked!"). I'm sorry that in this case, the breed we are discussing happens to be a Sheltie, but I do not want to see a Sheltie a year from now looking for another home all because someone started out with good intentions and a cheerleading squad telling them that training would fix everything. I just want them to THINK about it and be realistic and think of how they will handle the situation [u]just in case[/u]. To be fair, this should be with any breed, but since we were talking about Shelties...

Please accept my apologies for offending you for it was truly not my intention, but there is a much bigger issue here than whether or not Shelties are vocal.

[Horsefeathers!]

Also, I am surprised that no one has asked WHY the original poster decided on a Sheltie. That's a pertinent question. Some people choose a dog for looks alone ("I want a Cocker Spaniel because they are soooooo beautiful!"). I was just wondering what it is about Shelties that Fernanda likes.

[Hobbit]

[i]"Oh, my dog has been trained not to bark", [/i]how do you know the dog does not bark when you are not home? If the near neighbors aren't home, either --- how do you know? Just because the dog is perfect when you are around, does not mean he will be perfect when you are NOT around --- they are NOT machines, they do think.

[Hobbit]

[quote name='Horsefeathers!']Also, I am surprised that no one has asked WHY the original poster decided on a Sheltie. That's a pertinent question. Some people choose a dog for looks alone ("I want a Cocker Spaniel because they are soooooo beautiful!"). I was just wondering what it is about Shelties that Fernanda likes.[/quote]

Her quote, [i]"I heard that they are really easy at training and very intelligent!"[/i]

[Guest Anonymous]

Hey guys, I didn't want to begin a polemic, but forum discussions are for this, aren't they? :roll:
Anyway, somebody asked why a picked Shelties... Let's see, my husband and I think they are beautiful and they have a good size,not too big not too small... Then, we bought some books where they talk about their intelligence, loving and fidelity.
Since I don't work and I'm waiting for the beginning of my school, next fall, we tought that a dog should be good companion because I've been in USA only for one year and a half and I don't have many friends. Thus I could spend a lot of times with the dog, because of the great amount of exercise this breed demands.
We look for other breeds but we didn't agree with something... Only the Sheltie could please both of us!
I see that all breeds have their pros and cons, and that's why I asked for your opinion in this case. And the barking problem arouse!!! :-?

[Horsefeathers!]

Fernanda, please don't think I am attacking you, or questioning your intent. It's not really even about you, personally, per se, but about the dogs that I see where people choose them because they think they are beautiful and don't take other things into consideration (we haven't even touched on the grooming that will be required... lol, hope you like opening the freezer and finding hair in your ice :lol: ). I never meant to offend anyone with the barking comment... only relaying my experiences with the breed and others' I have talked to as well. Doesn't make me an authority, nor do I claim to be.

Again, please don't be offended, or take it personally. I am just still reeling from the fact that someone else recently dumped their dog because of a barking problem and I didn't think it was too inappropriate to at least bring it into consideration, especially by you living in such close quarters with other people.

Good luck.

[Ickle]

There are always of finding out if your dogs barkwhen you are out such as haveing someone go by and listen outside Or leave a tape recorder recording on long play.
Glad Fernanda looked deeply into the pros & cons of the sheltie as a pet; They only require grooming two or three times a week and done properly should not be any problem even when moulting.It can be alittle difficult if you suffer from arthritis but not impossible. (speaking from exprience)
There you go Horsefeathers it is people again who have no patience and probably done nothing about training their pet who do these nasty things like dumping dogs.(Know what I would like to do with them but it is not for polite company such as we have on this site). :evil:
We get a few little dogs like this through our rescue but somehow we always manage to find dedicated sheltie lovers who soon turn them around into well behave pets. God bless them :angel: Most dog people are great.
Ickle

[Ickle]

HI Horsefeathers
I know what you mean about people(There's that word again)
and their impulse buying of popular breeds without doing their homework, which is one reason why I pray a sheltie never goes Best in Show at Crufts. I always send interested buyers to reputable breeders and of course help all I can with relevant information on the breed.
My point is that not all shelties bark incessantly but it is like any other fault that some folks get their teeth into (like GSD are dangerous) we know they are not all so but bad comments spreads like wild fire and a another breed is branded
.I know there are noisey sheltie but still maintain the owners are the main cause of this problem.
Hope we can still be friends despite our differing opinions and we both want the best for the dogs. :lol:
Ickle

[Horsefeathers!]

Oh, everything's a'ight! I'd never stomp off in a huff just because of a minor difference of opinion. One thing I know is that we both have the welfare of the dogs at heart. :D

[Ickle]

Thanks Horsefeathers I am glad we are ok.
Keep on caring
Ickle :lol: :lol:

[corgilady]

[quote name='Ickle']My point is that not all shelties bark incessantly but it is like any other fault that some folks get their teeth into (like GSD are dangerous) we know they are not all so but bad comments spreads like wild fire and a another breed is branded
.I know there are noisey sheltie but still maintain the owners are the main cause of this problem.
[/quote]

I think too that people tend to overlook a "tendency" of a breed.... they just think yeah, so-and-so's sheltie barks, but mine won't --without considering that it is a breed trait, that will have to be worked with. Or nipped in the bud, as it were.
I have a friend with 3 shelties, they are the most BEAUTFIUL dogs I have ever ever seen. she brought them to a Corgi party and they sat motionless on their blanket while the Corgis went on with all the hoopla. I was VERY impressed. She is a good Doggiemama :lol:

[Ickle]

need I say more! your friends dogs have just proved the point
I was making. It is not a trait just a bad habit brought about by silly owners :roll:
Ickle