Sheltie coat colors

Shelties are such colorful dogs! So, I thought I would include a page explaining their colors and including some pictures of them also. First of all, there are only two base colors to shelties--sable or black. Each color has varying amounts of white on the face, neck, legs, underside, and tail. They also can come with or without tan points on the face and legs.

Sable and White

Is the first, and most common, color variation of the Sheltie. SABLE varies from a light golden color the whole way to brown hair that is tipped in black giving the appearance of black sides. Please note that just because a sable sheltie is very black that does not make it a tri color. Tri color dogs have solid black hair the whole way from the root to tip of their black hair. If you look at this next picture it's a good example of a dark sable. You can see all of the layers of color to his hair. This dark coloring is sometimes refered to as a shaded sable, a tri factored sable, or a mahogany sable, but the AKC refers to all of the shades of sable as just Sable and White.


Ruby of Walkup Shelties, below, is a lighter sable color. In this picture she is only a few months old. As a sable sheltie ages their coat darkens.
Sable Merle and White

Is what happens when you have a normal sable and white dog, and you add a merling gene. SABLE MERLES look very similar to blue merles at birth but as they grow their hair blends together and it becomes hard to tell wether a sable merle is merle or not. The merling effect also can merle their eyes (make them blue or partially blue), and since the AKC standard only allows blue eyes on blue dogs, the blue eyed sable merles are disqualified from the show ring. A nice blue eyed sable merle is one of my favorite color types though. This dog below is a very blue eyed sable merle named Angel. You can no longer see the spots on her side, but there is some silver coloring to her face, and the spots on her ears are usually a give-away to a sable dog being a merle. The picture below is of Angel and her littermate. She's the puppy on the left. She was born with lots of spots that you can't see now that she's an adult.

Black and White

Is most commonly know as the BI BLACK sheltie. These dogs are just two colors. A solid black hair coat with solid white markings. The bi black dog below is Sam of Walkup Shelties.

Black White and Tan Is referred to as a TRI COLOR dog. This dog is three solid colors. A black coated dog, with tan points, and varying amounts of white. This puppy below, Jimmy, is a tri color. This next puppy, Brady, is also a tri color, he just has a very minimal amount of brown. When he was born the brown on his face was barely even visible.





Blue Merle and White Is called a BI BLUE. This dog is a black coated dog with a separate gene that makes it's black coat swirled and diluted, creating the grey/blue and black look of the dog. The bi blue can have no tan on it. It is permissable for a bi blue to have blue eyes. Elrond, of Walkup Shelties, below is a bi blue. The picture below is Elrond and his brother, who is also bi blue, as puppies.

Blue Merle White and Tan Is called a BLUE MERLE dog. This again is a black dog, with tan points, and white areas, that has a merling gene on it's black areas. No two merle dog are just alike. They can have any variety of swirls or spots to their coats. Even if a merle dog is solid colored and only has one tiny grey spot, it is still a merle dog. Dogs with very minimal amounts of merling are referred to as CRYPTIC MERLES.

Color Headed White Is any dog that more than fifty percent of it's body is white. This coloring is a disqualification for AKC show rings, but is still used in other show rings and in breeding programs. A CHW dog, can come in any color listed above, with or without a face blaze. Norman, below, is a CHW sable merle. This next picture is Norman as a baby. This next puppy is also a CHW Sable merle. The next puppy is a CHW tri color. He has a lot more color than the others, but still is 'mismarked' for AKC standard, having more than 50% of his body white, so would be classified as a color headed white.

Double Merle

Is what happens when you breed two merle dogs together. The merling gene doubles up and creates a dilute effect. These dogs are referred to as Double merles, double dilutes, lethal whites, and some inexperienced breeders even refer to them as rare whites. They can be born blind, deaf, or perfectly fine. This is a breeding to be avoided unless you intend to care for any handicapped puppies that happen. Some breeders used to even routinely cull any white puppies born. Many double merle shelties have been very helpful in creating wonderful show dogs, and have been great producers.

To distinguish the double from the CHW--the double merle usually has a more white head with any markings on the rest of the body, while the Color headed white has it's markings on the head primarily.

Here are some fun links about sheltie coat colors:

Sparkshire's coat color calculator

Athro coat color calculator