Any breeders of Bi-Black Shetland Sheepdogs in the UK General Chat

Dear All,

Please can you tell me if anyone knows any breeders of Bi-Black Shetland Sheepdogs in the UK?

I have been scouring the net for some time now and cannot find anyone here in the UK that breeds this colour. They are a permitted colour as far as I am aware in the show ring.

We are giving serious consideration to adding a new addition to our family and I just love the colouration, mostly because of my monochrome guys at the moment !

My daughter (11 yrs) does junior handling with Kayleigh our BC now and handles Bilbo our boy at dog training and has just passed her silver KC good citizens with him and is now training for the gold one. She has loved the Sheltie breed for many years now (every champ show we go to she drags me to the ring) and we feel that as she has grown up with dogs, that she will be ready for her own dog in the next year or so.

I dont know anyone in Shelties to ask from the the show scene, so thought I'd try asking the question on here.

Many thanks in advance for help.

Cheers

When you say bi-black shetland sheepdogs, do you mean tri-colour (predominately black, with white and a bit of tan). I am not sure if black and white is actually a colour in the breed standard - they are usually, sable, tri-colour or merle.

Hello again, Just been looking at the Shetland Sheepdog breed standard and black and white is a recognised colour. There is also black and tan listed as a colour as well.
Apologies, its a long time since I had a sheltie and I have only ever seen the three colours. Lovely little dogs - mine lived to be 18 years old. He was a Nethercroft dog, bred by Mrs Buck - but it was a long time ago. Mind you Nethercroft dogs still appear at shows, so probably she (or her family) are still involved witht the breed.

HI there Aerolor,

Thanks for your reply.

They are black and while shelties, they are not the tri's. When I checked on the Yorkshire Sheltland Sheepdog website at the breed standard, it called the colour pattern bi-black.

They are not a very common colour, I would presume that the colour pattern is recessive to Sable, which I think is dominant, which will account for the fact that they are not easily come by

I think I will also send an email to secretary of the Shetland Sheepdog Club and see if she can point me in the direction of any breeders with this colour

Thanks again.

Hmmm.... I'd guess not all Merle shelties are sable-merles or tri-merles? In which case, there would also be bi-blacks in merle litters.

Yes, they are called bi-blues. Sorry I can't help OP, with finding a breeder in the UK, but this color is becoming increasingly popular over here. I'm not a fan myself. I enjoy the more classically marked Sheltie.

I would be careful of any breeder deliberatly breeding for a recessive colour
I am not a fan of a breeder breeding with colour as their main goal anyway
I would guess the best thing to do is go to shows and things and make friends with some really good breeders and let them know what you are looking for so if one pops up in a litter they know to give you a call

I'm surprised bi-black (which I assume is black and white) is recessive? How does that work?

I've seen a bi-blue but never a bi-black. They do look rather flashy.

It's recessive to Sable, but that's only because sable is top of the tree on the A (agouti) locus, the same locus that gives us wild colour in rabbits, rats, tabby cats etc. (in dogs the K gene is often also involved but the same holds true). It's not the same kind of recessive as, say, blue dilution.

In fact if the black is caused by the K gene (dominant black) rather than aa (melanistic, Agouti locus) then it's not a recessive at all, but dominant to Sable! (as in Belgian Shepherds).

Thanks - that was where I was getting confused - thanks

You're welcome H - hopefully it made sense

Just wanted to bump this, as every bi-black I know is oversize, I wonder if there is any relation, or just coincidence. I have met a couple in this country at agility shows etc, but know a few overseas through online and they are all oversize too.