Sheltie Color Rainbows
Shelties have always been a colorful bunch of dogs. There are three main colors with variances of each. Sable, Black, and Blue, some would argue that there is a fourth color, White.
Sable
A brown color that is very common, most people think of these as the real 'miniature collie', in part thanks to Rudd Weatherwax and Lassie. There are many variations of the color from an earthy brown, to a rusty red. All fall under the category of Sable though. Within sable coloring you have Pure For Sable. Pure For Sable will produce a sable colored dog no matter what you breed it to since Sable Coloring is a dominant trait in shelties.
Shaded Sable is the result of a sable dog being bred to a black dog, usually a tri-color
Sable Merle is the result of breeding a sable dog to a blue dog, this color pattern is acceptable in the AKC show ring so long as the dog has brown eyes.
Black
Black is another common color. The body of the dog is black, there are several variations of this color pattern. Tri-Color, this is a black dog with tan points, this color dog can be bred to any color dog without any negative color based consequences.
The other common black color variation is the Bi-Black. Bi-Black does not have any tan points. Bi-Blacks can be bred to any color dog without any color based consequences.
Blue
Blue is the final common color pattern of Shelties and comes in several varieties. Blue Merle, like the tri-color has tan points. This color can have blue eyes, brown eyes, or merle eyes(partly blue, partly brown).
Bi-Blue is a blue dog with no tan points on it.
Double-Merle or homozygous merle. This is the result of a breeding between a blue and another blue. Generally not advised except by the most experience breeders. The result is a dog that will guarantee you merles when you breed it. Some breeders will breed one of these dogs for a breeding program. This dog can not be shown and is likely to be deaf or blind or both but it is not certain.
White
Collar-Headed-White are dogs that have fully white, or majority of their body being white with the head carrying normal colors. This color generally results from the breeding between a breeding of a white factored dog to a white factored dog. Some breeders are pushing to change the standard to allow for CHW dogs since they are structurally identical to the other colors and has no known negative effects of being heavily white.

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