The History of the Working Shetland Sheepdog: a Marriage of Beauty and Brains
privately printed for the author England 2006
Notes
The Shetland Sheepdog, affectionately known as the Sheltie is the product of centuries of isolation, harsh environmental conditions, and meticulous breeding, resulting in a unique marriage of high intelligence and striking beauty. Developed on the remote Shetland Islands of Scotland, these hardy, small herding dogs were engineered to manage livestock in a landscape with limited resource. In 1982 on her return from Kenya, Rosemary and her husband Tony decided to turn their attention to the training of dogs in the obedience world. They had already been given permission to establish a Working Section of the English Shetland Sheepdog Club in 1970; their idea was to raise the profile of the working Sheltie thus combining their beauty and brains, while retaining essential Sheltie traits.