Beautiful dogs! Someone commented on the unusual coloring of your sheltie, and she definitely is both unusual and gorgeous! If I remember correctly, to be shown, shelties may have no more than 50% white, but I've seen some high white shelties that are just knockouts! That rule would explain why we don't see a lot of them though.

As far as being more scared of the dog than the snakes... well, irrational fears are just that! It is a refreshing change though!