This is actually a good point...don't talk sheet ringside too much, you never know who you're sitting next to
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Haha, better yet, just don't talk *$@( period! Remember what Thumper's mom said, LOL. I do my best to keep my thoughts to myself at shows... they are my opinions so they stay with me, where they belong, haha.
As for neurotic shelties, I do think any herding breed is at high risk for being neurotic, but I wouldn't exactly call it normal in any given breed. Some people inadvertently encourage it, they find it cute or funny, or don't know how to break the cycle when a dog starts to get fixated and stop things before it becomes an issue. Like there's video out there of shelties "attacking" a vacuum cleaner and the people taking the video are laughing about it... or things like constant nervous spinning. I would say that you are more likely to find that neurotic behavior either in poorly bred situations with people who don't care at all about temperament OR in agility competitors who mistake that sort of thing for drive. They are not the same and I would posit a neurotic dog would be a poor worker, but there are sport breeders out there who are just trying to breed the most amped up, nutso things they can possibly get because they're "fast" on the course, and the result is a mess. You probably wouldn't end up with a dog from those sorts of breeders anyway because it's unlikely they would deign to sell one of their precious puppies to "just" a pet home anyway.
As for snappy, that's a downright fault and should not be present in the breed.
Shyness can be a thing. Pepper is the only one of our four, six if you count Happy and Kota, who is wary of strangers. Happy was afraid of other dogs but people were great. =P Many sheltie breeders, when selecting for temperament, don't accept shyness in their dogs though. I think the quote out of Sheltie Talk is something like "I have no use for a shy dog." All of mine also dig children, although Auggie took some training because he very much sees small running children as equivalent to sheep. The chase instinct is a thing with most dogs so I don't hold it against him. But kids coming up to him and patting him was never a problem, and he likes them because they usually smell of some variety of food items, haha.
In general going with confo only lines will produce a quieter, calmer, more couch-potato type sheltie though. I like to see (successful) performance involved because it proves the dog still has a brain - I unfortunately know some confirmation dogs who are just not very bright. They can be quirky and funny and silly and do things that make you say "oh my gosh, you're so stupid" - but the extreme "dumb as a box of rocks" isn't a descriptor I think belongs on any breed LOL, let alone shelties. It's certainly not all confo dogs! But I do know several lines that are just plain not bright. Cute, very nice dogs in every other way, but the lights are on and nobody's home. So when researching lines I like to see some proof of a good, working brain.
As always it all comes down to the lines and the individual dogs in question though!
