Standard of the Sheltie Breed – FCI No. 88

General appearance: small, long-haired working dog of utmost beauty, with no signs of heaviness or roughness. The body line is symmetric, with no disharmonious part, related to the general impression. Abundant hair, abundant collar and front and beautifully shaped head with a pleasant face unite in ideal picture.

Characteristics: watchful, peaceful, intelligent, strong and lively.

Nature: devoted and loving his master, reserved towards strangers, never nervous.

Head and skull: noble head, forms a long and blunt wedge when seen from above and the profile, narrowing gradually from the ears to the nose. The width of the skull is in the correct rate to its length and to the length of the nose part. The complex must be judged in comparison to the size of the dog. The braincase is flat, of adequate width between the ears, with not significant back bulge. The cheeks are flat, smoothly changing into a well-rounded nose. The braincase and the nasal parts are of the same length, the divisional point being the inner corner of the eye. The upper line of braincase is parallel with the line of the nose, with not very significant, but well marked stop. The snout, lips and eyelids lines are black. The distinctive appearance is set by the evenness and harmony of the skull and the facial part, the shape, colour and positioning of the eyes ad by the correct setting and proper bearing.

Mouth, teeth: strong and symmetrical jaws, smoothly cut, lower jaw well developed. Lips well adjacent. Healthy teeth, with perfect, regular and complete scissor bite. The upper teeth closely overlay the lower teeth, they are set upright in the jaw. Full number of 42 correctly set teeth is most desirable.

Eyes: middle sized, set sideways, and almond shaped. Dark brown colour, except individuals with blue-merle colour, when one or both eyes may be blue, or with blue spots.

Ears: small, adequately wide at the base, placed quite close to each other at the top of the skull. Laid backwards when calm, turned to the front when on alert, half upright, with tips overturned pointing front.

Neck: muscular, well-arched, of sufficient length, enabling noble position of the head.

Chest limbs: shoulder-blades are well positioned towards the back. Separated at withers by the spine only, however adjusted to desired arching of the ribs. The joint of shoulder blade with humerus is well angled. The shoulder-blade and the humerus are of at about the same length. The elbow is placed in the middle-height between the ground and the withers. The extremities look muscular when seen from the front, harmoniously formatted and parallel, with strong bones. The wrist is strong and pliable.

Body: measured from the joint of the humerus and shoulder-blade to the bulge of the ischium, is slightly longer then the withers height. The chest is deep, reaching up to the elbow. The ribs are well arched, narrowing in the lower part of the chest, allowing free movement of the shoulder-blades and chest limbs. The back is straight, with gently arched shoulders, slowly proceeding to gently descending back.

Pelvic limbs: the thighs are wide and muscular, the ferum joins the pelvis at the right angle. The knee is distinctly angled, the ankle is well shaped and angled, deeply set, with strong bones. Both metacarpi and parallel when seen from the back.

Paws: round, with well-filled cushions, fingers arched and closed.
Tail: set very low. The tail vertebrae narrow towards the tip, reaching up to the ankle joint, tail with abundant hair, with a mild curve upwards. When agitated, the tail may be set higher, however never above the back line. It mustn’t be angular.

Walking, movement: lissome, smooth and graceful, coming out from the pelvic limbs, covering maximum of space with minimum effort. Amble walking, jinking, swinging or stiff, stilt-like and accented movements are highly undesirable.

Hair: double layer, upper hair long, rough, straight. Under hair is soft, short and thick. Hair on the collar and breast very abundant. Pennons on chest limbs very abundant. Pelvic limbs covered in hair up to the ankles, from the ankles downwards the hair short, smooth. Hair in the face short, smooth. Short-haired individuals are highly undesirable.

Colours:
sable colours: clear colours or with shading, varying from light golden to saturated mahogany. The colour of shading must be very saturated. Wolf-like and grey colouring is undesirable. tricolour: dark black on the body, preferably with light inguinal signs. blue-merle: clear, silvery blue with black streaks and marbling. Saturated burnt signs are preferred, however their absence must not be penalised. Large black panels, shaly or rusty touch in the upper hair as well as in the under-hair is highly undesirable. The total image has to be of blue. Black and white and black with inguinal are also recognized colours. White signs (apart from black with inguinal) can be: blaze, collar, breast, limbs and the tip of the tail. White signs are preferred ( apart from black with inguinal), however their absence is not penalised- White spots anywhere else on the body are highly undesirable.

Height: the ideal height at withers: dogs 37 cm, bitches 35.5 cm. Any deviation exceeding more than 2.5 cm up or down is highly undesirable.

Defects: All deviations from the above-stated points are considered to be defects, their evaluation must be in exact rate to the degree of deviation.

Note: dogs must have two clearly normally developed testicles, desdescended completely in the scrotum.