Hi Dakota,
I'm new too.
I have adopted 3 shelties from rescues in the past and still have one along with my 2 rough collies. Boy is there a huge difference between shelties & collies, and I don't mean size.
Sheltie owners call their dogs active and vocal while non-sheltie owners call them hyper & yippy.
They do have a high herding drive and are very intelligent dogs. Helps if they have a job, or at least are allowed to herd something. Mine keep the Canada geese out of our yard for us. They seem to be quite sensitive as far as their personality is concerned, so will respond better to positive reinforcement & treats than scolding. If you called one of my shelties a dog, it would sulk. They live to please you. At the same time, they are car, kids, bike, lawn mowers & vacuum chasers. Many are runners too so need to be fenced. Most don't do well with a elec underground fencing.
A couple things we've learned about them over the years: Shelties are prone to tarter build up on their teeth. We have to have ours cleaned every other year. It's a big expense. We have had flouride treatments and I brush their teeth and still have the problems. There is a new vaccination for dental health available and I'd reccomend it to any small breed owners since they are more likely to have dental problems than large breed dogs.
Also, food/skin allergies & thyroid problems are common in shelties. One of ours went through lots of testing and meds and had completely lost it's undercoat and had smelly hot spots and nothing seemed to be working. Finally we changed to Nurtros Lamb & Rice dog food and it cleared up after a while. We just had to stay on that food and we had little problems.
One of our adoptees was a puppy mill rescue. She was a double dilute, which is the product of irresponsibly breeding two blue merles together-a HUGE NO NO- which caused her to be born completely deaf, both bright blue eyes with a star burst shaped pupal in each and vision problems too. Almost all double dilutes have vision problems and are deaf. She was 10 when we adopted her from petfinder.com. Unfortunatly she was forced to breed litter after litter so who knows how many puppies she passed those poor genes onto.
So, my advice to you is to get some books from your library on shelties to make sure this is the dog for your family. Also remember there is a lot of grooming involved and it takes a long time for them to dry without using a blow dryer. My current sheltie is 13 years old and although she naps more often, she hasn't slowed down at all so this is not a dog that will generally get lazy as it ages but they can still be overweight. A few extra pounds on a small dog really count. My shelties weighed between 17-24 lbs. They can also be a bit short tempered with children. Life span is about 12-14 years.
Now, on the otherhand, collies are known as the couch potatoes of the herding breed. The smooth collie has shorter /coarser fur so is easier on the grooming but seems to have a bit higher herding drive. The rough collie (typical lassie) requires daily light grooming and weekly or biweekly heavy grooming. I have never ever found a better temperament on a dog than I have on my collies and every collie I've met. They are gentle despite their size with children and the eldery and have very unique ways of communication with their owners and other dogs. They chomp they jaws and you can hear it across the yard and they sing with their mouths wide open. It so funny! They also breathe heavy to get your attention and many like to mouth their people and lead them around by taking they hand gently in their mouths.
What ever you do, don't get a sheltie from a pet store.
Here's the breeder mine came from and she has puppies available now.
http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/Park/9953/None of her current pups are the typical sable and white - she has whites with blue merle heads or tri heads and a couple blue merles & a tri color. They sure are beautiful! And her dogs are bred for health and temperament first. She also has all their eyes certified by a canine opthomaligist.
You might also read some of Albert Payson Terhunes books -Lad, a dog, etc. I swear you'll fall in love with the collie.
Good luck and good for you for researching first! Also consider checking our petfinder.com. A lot of wonderful pets are homeless now due to the economy, foreclosures, job relocating, and their owners passing away.
We have never regretted a single one of our rescues!
