i bought a sheltie pup for showing and possible breeding 18months ago, i was told she would mature to 14 inches tall, but i cant show her now!! she is barely 10 inches tall! !GAHHH lol
lemme see if i can dig up a pic of her when we first got her..
this was her the day i got her, she weighed just 2 lbs!! and she was 8 weeks old!
We also bought a tiny sheltie which we loved, but we bought it in England. It was their (England's) breed originally and comes from a small island with smaller sheep etc. We wanted to breed her when we got back to the US and the US breed had 6 week old puppies were the same size as our full size dog. Ours was about 12 pounds full grown. We have an American Sheltie and it is 20-25 lbs but they often get larger. Many breeders said they are starting to become two different breeds because the Americans have decided since they are herding dogs they should be larger. They have standards for size, head shape etc that the the British don't have. The may split into 2 breeds at the shows I was told. So if you want a little, fine-boned one, get an English sheltie. A larger one would be found in the US. For anyone else reading this, read what a quality sheltie looks like and try to get one close to it. I have seen some very bad looking shelties out there. And don't get them mixed up with Collies. They are even larger. Shelties are not miniature Collies. They have some of the same ancestors, hence their similar appearance, but they are the different breads.