Following some fantastic wins and achievements, including a Gold for Team GB at the IMCA Championships in Spain this year, Halo and Apryl have been selected by The Kennel Club to form part of the Team GB Development Squad 2020. Join us today on the blog to find out what being on the Development Squad entails, their hopes for the future and just what does Halo and Halloween have in common? Let’s find out!

I Love Shelties: Behind every dog there’s a brilliant handler so tell us a little about yourself to start with!

Apryl: I live with my husband, Richard, and 7 dogs in Wiltshire [UK]. I work full time as a civil servant and currently am doing my Level 3 Diploma in Dog Grooming. I’ve always had a love for animals but was never allowed a dog as a child. I got my first dog at 17 and I still have her today, Trixie, my Jack Russell Terrier who is now 14 years old. Dog Agility is my much loved hobby and I am very lucky to share that, not only with my dogs, but also with my husband who now competes (and he’s not bad at it either).

ILS: Have you always owned and trained dogs?

Apryl: I got my first dog at 17. I now own 7 dogs and I most recently lost my Springer Spaniel, Neville, but my love is with Shelties and I have Breeze (my first Sheltie) to thank for that. She is my heart dog, my one in a million, with Halo being my one in a million version 2. I have always trained my own dogs and my husband’s, so every spare minute after work I do small training sessions with my them before it gets dark.

ILS: How did Halo come into your life?

Apryl: I had contacted Miguel De Coninck from Belgium to say I loved his Shelties. My name was down for a pup but unfortunately there was not enough to go round, however this meant I had pick of the litter on a different line. I wanted a Bi-Blue girl and with that their pups were born, unfortunately the Bi-Blue did not make it and with that Halo became mine. She was born on 30th October and that’s how she got the name Halo from being my Halloween Treat.

ILS: What is Halo like to live with and what’s her personality like?

Apryl: To live with Halo is a complete dream, but Halo has a weakness and that is food, so she never fails to tell me she is starving hungry and requires her breakfast and dinner. Halo is shy and therefore doesn’t interact with strangers, which I prefer, so I’ve spent a long time building her confidence and having patience with her to get her to the confident dog she has become today. She is the dog that runs over to lick my tears away, she’s the dog that makes me laugh and is so happy that her bum rarely stays still.

ILS: How did you get into agility?

Apryl: When I got my first dog I took her to puppy classes and the same training school had agility and that’s the start of it all. I realised my Terrier would rather check out the burger van than run agility, so at 21 I got my first agility dog, Breeze, she was also my first Sheltie who retired last year from agility. She was so naughty and taught me so much but she also had her own successes including a Reserve Championship Ticket being our highlight. Agility had evolved so much with running contacts and different handling styles but I am very lucky that Halo loves to learn and helps my understanding and learning to agility much smoother.

ILS: Have there been many challenges in your agility training with Halo?

Apryl: Yes, my biggest challenge with Halo was her confidence. When I started she didn’t love it, but we have worked hard together to form a partnership. For her to trust me and know I won’t let anything happen to her. So waiting on that start line with the noise, people watching and excitable dogs around is okay whilst I walk away because in that ring it’s just me and her. It’s taken Halo longer to build her confidence but I would say now she is showing her true potential and has even started crying with excitement to do agility and barking on the course.

ILS: What have been some of your proudest achievements together?

Apryl: Halo has achieved many proud moments I would say my highlight to date and achieved this year have been competing at Crufts and qualifying again for 2020 and winning gold medal at IMCA championship for Team UK in Spain. Halo also won her very first final at Dogs in Need and earned a trophy as big as her, any achievement I am proud of because Halo’s height category is up to 35cm and she is only 31cm so she gives everything to keep up with the best in our height category.

ILS: You’ve been selected for the Kennel Club’s Team GB squad for 2020 (congratulations!) How did that come about?

Apryl: Thank you so much. Halo was selected through the development squad who look at dogs throughout the year with potential. A way to go about being noticed was to enter the GB Performance weekend in March whereby she won her agility round, and from this year a new event called the GB international tour was developed which was a point scoring system whereby you enter various shows throughout the year which has a European style course and a larger ring. I competed at three of shows this year, each time either being placed in an individual round gaining points as well as winning the overall twice which meant she ended top of the leader board on points in her height category and was then called up for GB squad.

ILS: What happens next in your Team GB 2020 training and competing?

Apryl: During the winter Halo and I will keep our fitness but we have more downtime and rest from competitions. So we will do training days to keep up our skills but enjoy more winter walks just being a much loved pet. In terms of GB, I have a handler only attendance day in November and then have a training weekend with dogs in February and in March have the GB performance weekend. After this event the GB teams are picked for the AWC and EOs.

ILS: What’s your biggest dream to achieve with Halo?

Apryl: I have one dream and it would mean so much to me if I achieved that with Halo, and that would be to win an Agility Championship Ticket. If you win three you get Agility Champion status and that would be a dream come true for Halo and I.

The post Halo Holds Her Own – Interview with Sheltie Agility Handler Apryl Britton first appeared on I Love Shelties.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to turn your perfect pooch into a top model on bags and t-shirts? Very soon you will be able to do just that! We are shortly going to be adding an option to the shop that allows you to upload an image of your pet which is then turned into a piece of artwork. There will be several art styles available to choose from to suit all tastes and you can have several images combined into one so you can have your whole pack included! We can accommodate any requests to include certain colours and small amounts text if you’d like to include your pets name for example as well.

You can choose what products you’d like to see the design on and once it has been created, you’ll have your very own shop link to purchase whatever products you or your family would like. These products are manufactured and shipped to order by our partner company so they are completely unique and exclusive to only those you share the link with!

All artworks will be created and your exclusive shopping area will be available within 7 working days of you sending in your photo(s) – this may be quicker or slower depending on how busy we are so please be patient as it can take a while to create all your masterpieces!

To keep up to date with when the personalised pet products goes lives, sign up to our newsletter below to be the first to hear when it is available!

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The post Personalised Products Coming Soon! first appeared on I Love Shelties.

The Agility World Championships began with the Small, Medium and Large team competitions over two days with Team Jumping on Thursday 19th September followed by Team Agility on Friday 18th. Teams from around the world competed but it was Germany’s team of four Shetland Sheepdogs that came out on top both days in the Small Teams leading them to victory overall in the combined results which was a fantastic achievement.

Images reposted with permission from www.koirakuvat.fi

Interestingly, all of the top 10 Small Teams had at least one Sheltie as part of the team which just goes to show how fast, intelligent, versatile and dynamic they can be!

In the Medium Teams, Shetland Sheepdogs were part of nearly every country’s team and once again, in the final combined results, Germany triumphed with their Medium Team made up of three Shetland Sheepdogs and a Mudi.

On Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd, individuals representing their countries competed in Jumping and Agility respectively and once again, Shelties came out on top! In the Individual Small Jumping results, Shelties came in 1st and 2nd place while in the Small Agility results, Shelties won all three podium spots. In the combined final results for Small Individuals, Shelties took 9 of the top ten spots with Tobias Wüst and Sheltie Dörte being crowned champions of the Small Individual Championships having been part of the winning German Small Team as well.

In the Medium Jumping and Agility, the Shelties once again, held their own with the final result seeing Silas Boogk and Sheltie Beam being crowned overall champion in the Medium results.

It was an exciting four days of competing with Shelties dominating the scoreboards. Well done to all the winners and everyone that competed and we’ll be looking forward to seeing how they all do next year!

The post Shelties take the podium at the Agility World Championships 2019 first appeared on I Love Shelties.

We are launching the shop with an initial selection of products but we plan to expand on our designs and product ranges all the time. At the moment, here are a few exciting products that you can find in our store featuring Sheltie designs or photos:

• Hoodies
• Tote Bags
• Mugs
• Blank Greeting Cards
• Art Prints (Framed and Unframed)
• Cushions
• Jewellery (necklace and bracelets)

You can keep checking back regularly, sign up to our newsletter or follow us on Instagram or Facebook to be in the know about new designs and products being launched. We are hoping very soon to be adding leggings (everyday leggings and yoga leggings) to the shop as well as hats, t-shirts and more homeware products such as coasters, placemats and vinyl car stickers!

Are there any other products or designs you’d desperately love to see on the shop? Let us know in the comments!

The post Our Sheltie Shop is Open! first appeared on I Love Shelties.

Dogs of the Shetland Isles

The original Shetland herding dogs were small mixed breeds, generally considered to be Spitz-type dogs similar to the modern Icelandic Sheepdog. They were adept at herding and protecting livestock, small, intelligent and agile enough to deal with the rugged landscape and had thick double coats to help them survive the harsh winters.

These dogs were crossed extensively with working collies from mainland Britain and later crossed with other breeds such as the Rough Collie, Border Collie, Greenland Yakki (now extinct), King Charles Spaniel and Pomeranian. During this time they were often known as Toonies or Toonie dogs and were an important part the economy during the 19th century being sold to tourists who loved their small size and cute and fluffy look. However this led to the Islanders realising the original breed was vanishing so extensive Collie crosses were made to help recover the original type which started to become known as Shetland Collies. This did not go down well with breeders of Rough Collies so a few months after the first Kennel Club registration of the Shetland Collie, the name was formally changed to Shetland Sheepdog.

The Modern Shetland Sheepdog

Just before the name change, the first Sheltie to be registered with the Kennel Club (UK) was “Badenock Rose” in 1909 and was 1 of 28 registered that year. The first Sheltie to be registered by the American Kennel Club was “Lord Scott” in 1911. The breed name was changed and dogs began to be registered officially as the Shetland Sheepdog breed in 1914.

Further crosses were made up to the 1930s and possibly even 40s to help retain the more desirable characteristics of the Rough Collie breed. It was a challenging time due to the onset of World War I during which time shows and breeding were halted and dogs born during the war were barred from being shown. As the Shetland Sheepdog breed was still relatively new and didn’t have large numbers, some of the initial prominent breeding lines were lost during this time. However during this time, some breeding continued and these were so influential that they can still be traced back in the pedigree lines of many modern Shelties.

The post A Brief History of the Shetland Sheepdog (Sheltie) first appeared on I Love Shelties.

Information and Tips

For the new Sheltie owner, you’ll find a wealth of information on this wonderful breed coming up on the blog – everything from the breed history to grooming tips.

Stories and Spotlights

Find out more about the personality behind the pups and their people as we do spotlight interviews to find out more about what makes Shelties so versatile and the perfect pet. And if you’d like to get involved and have your own spotlight interview, do get in touch!

News

Keep up to date, not only on website and our shop news but we’ll also share updates from the wider Sheltie world – whether that’s conformation breed wins, agility shows… you name it! If you’ve got an interesting story or achievement you’d like to share with the wider Sheltie community, send us an email as we’d love to hear from you.

Shop Coming Soon

We’re Sheltie lovers and owners, having fell in love with the breed well over 20 years ago. Over the years we’ve struggled to find our favourite breed represented on products so with a background in design and photography, we decided to fill the gap and start creating our own products with Shelties on to spread the love of the breed! All designs will be exclusive to our shop so there’ll be plenty of fresh and exciting products coming out for you to enjoy. And if there’s a specific product you’re looking for – let us know and we’ll get designing!

Collaboration

We know that there’s plenty of other talented photographers, designers, illustrators and artists that also love the Shetland Sheepdog so we are keen to hear from anyone who might be interested in seeing their work on products. Check out the Artist Submission page for more information on how to get involved.

Connecting Sheltie Lovers

I love Shelties intends to be an important hub, not only of the shop but for information, news and to bring together the community of Sheltie lovers which we plan to do by the introduction of some exciting new features over the coming months. We can’t tell you anymore yet but if you’d like to be kept up to date, sign up to our newsletter to be in the know for all the exciting new developments.

The post Welcome to I Love Shelties! first appeared on I Love Shelties.