outside

Question
can shelties live out side all the time? if u live in victoria bo u know and sheltie breeders in victoria near boronia if possible?

Answer
Hi Tracy,

IF you are a sheep farmer with a nice warm barn and dozens of acers then the answer is sure, Shelties do love the outdoors.  However I'm betting that not to be the case.

Shelties are bred to seek approval from their people and work hard when called to.  These traits do not lend themselves to an outdoor lifestyle in a run or a kennel; I might become upset if you were going to leave your dog tethered to a short chain, but I know if you are looking here you aren't planning on doing that.

Let me qualify this outdoor statement: if you were say working all day and wanted to leave the Sheltie in a nice long dog run with a large doghouse until you came home to bring them indoors; that would be fine.  However if that dog never came inside, was all by itself 90 of the time, and rarely had attention I'd say don't buy a dog at all. Period.

Dogs are pack animals and not meant to live in a small confined space with no attention or interaction.  Even herding dogs typically have a place in the house to stay.  Where I live in Middle Tennessee we have a problem with people buying a dog and putting it on a 15' chain with a doghouse that is not big enough for the dog.  Years later you have a dog that creates a mud hole because he is never released from his prison.  There are at least 3 dogs within one half mile of my home like this.  I am somewhat tempted to cut the chains and take the dogs to the pound myself.

I hope I haven't ranted on you too much, sometimes I get questions on here that are difficult to answer in any way other than assuming the worst.  Shetland Sheepdogs are high maintenance for brushing and attention and aren't outside dogs.  In fact, I would argue that most breeds are never outside dogs in the traditional sense that I described above.

Dave