- There is little doubt that the small working Collie, from which the modern show Collie derives, was likewise the progenitor of the Shetland Sheepdog. The actual origin, however, is lost in the mists of the Shetland Islands and cannot be traced completely by records, but tradition makes the Sheltie as old as the islands themselves.

- A group of about 100 small islands, the Shetland Islands lie approximately 50 miles off the northern coast of Scotland, and as far north as most of Norway. Only one quarter of them are inhabited by humans; the remainder are used solely to pasture the ponies, cattle, and sheep.

- It is a land of rugged, rocky coasts, with coastal storms sweeping over the entire islands at frequent intervals. The climate is harsh and damp, with only a few protected inlets sheltered well enough to grow crops. Winter days are short and cold... summers are brief with the sun visible 24 hours a day.

- The Island's first inhabitants were a small, dark race of people - the Picts - who gave the land its reputation for being inhabited by "pixies" or fairies. Later the Norsemen overran the Islands, and then the Scots as well, so that today the inhabitants are a mixture of these three races. Consequently, the dogs of the Shetland Islands are a combination of the native breeds of each of these peoples.

- Due to the sparseness of vegetation and the ruggedness of climate, the Islands over the centuries have produced every living thing in diminutive size. Shetland ponies, sheep, and cattle grow much smaller when bred on the islands than do their counterparts on the mainlands. Likewise, the "Toonie" (town), or "Peerie" (fairy) dogs were reduced replicas of their ancestor, the Collie.