Welcome!!
Tyler, TJ, Kylee, Belle, Traverse,
Tigger, and Teak. (2011)
Welcome to our little home on the web! Sympa Shelties is
located in Michigan where we love, train, show, and breed Shetland
Sheepdogs. Take a peek around and get to know us, we'd love to
get to know you, too - so drop us a line! :)
Or find us on Facebook!
The Basics :)
"Sympatheque" (or "Sympa" for short) means sweet or pleasant in French.Our dogs are considered companions and family members first and foremost, competitors second.
We believe a sheltie should be of sound temperament, beautiful
conformation, and have the ability to do what it was originally bred
to do. We enjoy participating in therapy visits, obedience, agility
and conformation with the dogs from our lines. The theory of "Total
Dog" in the
United Kennel Club is very important to us. We are
also proud members of the
United Shetland Sheepdog Association.
Our dogs are very active and loving shelties, which we believe a sheltie should be. According to TerrificPets.com, the Sheltie is 6th highest in intelligence out of over 130 breeds.
We do not breed often, but when we do, we breed for brains and
temperament in mind first, then conformation. We feel
that even the best looking sheltie according to the standard should
not be flighty or aggressive, so that is why we put conformation
second to temperament.
We believe the Shetland Sheepdog is a wonderful breed and should
continue to prosper, therefore, we are completely against puppy
mills and inexperienced breeders.
We also test our breeding dogs for eyes (CERF),
hips (OFA), thyroid, vWD, and
MDR-1 mutations.
Lots changing...
There is a lot changing on our website over the past couple of months and into the future. We hope you stick with us while we try out a couple new options available to us. If you experience any problems at all, please do not hesitate to email us.