Sheltie Colours

The Sheltie comes in several colours. For showing purposes (i.e. conformation, or the breed ring), the allowable colours are sable, black (with white and/or tan markings), and blue merle (with white and/or tan markings). The breed standard states: "Colour black, blue merle, and sable (ranging from golden through mahogany); marked with varying amounts of white and/or tan."

We generally refer to the colours as sable, tricolour (black, white & tan), blue merle (blue merle, white & tan), bi-black (black & white), and bi-blue (blue merle & white). The sable merle is a colour which is not specifically addressed in the breed standard, and several of these dogs have been shown to championships.

In addition to the colours allowed for showing, the Sheltie can also be a colour-headed white (predominantly white body with head coloured in any of the above colours), and double merle (predominantly white, including the head, with possibly minimal amounts of the other colours).