Shetland+Sheepdogs

﻿ **Shetland Sheepdogs** Kristina Kruse

**Scientific Classification﻿ **  
 * Kingdom || Animalia ||
 * Phylum ||  Chordata ||
 * Class ||  Mammalia ||
 * Order || Carnivora ||
 * Family || Canidae ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">Genus || <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">Canis ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">Species || <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">Lupus familaris ||

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**<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">﻿ Family: Canidae﻿ ** <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">A Shetland Sheepdog belongs to the Canidae family, along with a gray wolf, coyote, siberian husky, and a labrador. There are many general characteristics of the animals in this family. For instance, all canidaes have four legs, they all have tails, and they have hair or fur. Some other characteristics are that they all have 78 chromosomes,or 39 pairs. They also share a common body temperature, which is 100-102.5 degrees fahrenheit.

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**<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">Character<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">﻿ istics ** <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">A Shetland Sheepdog is a small to medium sized dog. It comes in many colors. The three basic ones are [|merle, sable, and black.]. A healthy weight for this kind of dog is 11-30 pounds. The life span of a Shetland Sheepdog is 12-15 years. The country they originated in was Scottland. This was in the early 1900s.

**<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">Movememt and Metabolism ** <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">Shetland Sheepdogs move by walking or running on four legs. They use their teeth to chew their food. Like all dogs, they have a one way digestive system. Dogs fall into the Carnivora order, which means they eat meat. Canidaes, such as wolves eat meat from the wild. Dogs like Shetland Sheepdogs either eat dog food, or meat(not from the wild).

**<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">Growth, Development, and Reproduction ** <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">It takes a Shetland Sheepdog around one year to mature from a puppy to a dog. Males tend to groy between 13-16 inches tall. Females grow smaller at about 12-14 inches. A Shetland Sheepdog generally gestates for about 4 Weeks. A mother can give birth to 4-6 puppies at one time.

**<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">﻿ Adapting ** <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">Along with most dogs, Shetland Sheepdogs have made many adjustments to their life style. They have had to change the way they walk, so they could keep up with the human pace. Another example is that dogs have a sensitive sense of smell that had been trained to hunt certain wild animals. Or, they may be trained to assist firefighters, or guiding blind humans. A third example is that they must adapt to human needs, like where they can and cannot use the bathroom, or that they cannot bite humans or other animals. Shetland Sheepdogs and many other dogs have had to make several adjustments to their lifestyle. <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">

**<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">﻿ Differences Between Males and Females ** <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">There are not many differences between males and females be﻿sides height. A male is normally 13-16 inches tall, whereas a female is 12-14 inches tall.