Australian Shepherd - Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

The Australian Shepherd Club of America ASCA was founded in 1957 to promote the breed. The National Stock Dog Registry became its official breed registry, which continued until ASCA took over in 1972.

In 1975, ASCA created a breed standard, describing exactly how an Australian shepherd should look and be constructed (its conformation to the Standard). It developed more uniformity in the breed and standardized the type.

In the United States, the American Kennel Club is the primary registry for purebred dogs. However, many Aussie breeders felt that AKC put too much emphasis on breed conformity and not enough on performance, so ASCA declined to join the AKC. Those breeders who felt that AKC membership had its advantages split off from ASCA to form their own Australian shepherd club, the United States Australian Shepherd Association, created their own breed standard, and joined the AKC in 1993. The decision about affiliation with the AKC remains controversial, as it does with many performance breeds.

The Fédération Cynologique Internationale recognized the Australian shepherd for international competition in 2007, in Group 1 Sheepdogs and Cattle Dogs as breed number 342.

The miniature Australian shepherd, was developed by breeders looking for smaller dogs ranging in size from 14 inches and up to the Aussie standard. In 2010, NAMASCUSA renamed the breed, Miniature American Shepherds and subsequently changed their named to MASCUSA, The Miniature American Shepherd Club of the USA. This new breed gained acceptance into the AKC Miscellaneous class in June of 2012 with the sizes written in the standard as females from 13-17 inches and males from 14-18 inches.

In addition, there is an emergence of an even smaller version, referred to as the toy Australian shepherd, with adult males tipping the scales at a mere 12 to 15 pounds (5.5 to 7 kg) and all dogs falling under a 14' height at the withers. The genetic consequences of breeding the standard Australian shepherd down to one-quarter size remain to be seen. Many breeders and owners of Australian shepherds consider the Mini and Toy to be separate breeds; others consider them to be downsized versions of the same breed. ASCA and AKC consider all such variants to be separate breeds.