My venture into miniature American shepherds

 If your a breeder that I contacted or contacted me you might find this a bit bitchy! 

When I first started looking for a mini American shepherd I was interested because a fellow Aussie breeder had a female I liked. So I put out feelers to breeders. I added my background in Aussies as a note about me and told them what my plans were to compete.

As a long time aussie owner and breeder I was less t then disheartened by what was offered to me as show quality. Frankly it was mostly crap or mediocre dogs at best. I was appalled and felt it ludicrous that so many breeders were showing me dogs I wouldn’t consider ever placing myself as a quality dog to be shown. 

When I did find some that might have worked the contracts for these minis were absolutely insane! What in gods earth makes these breeders think they can have so much control and ask 2-3 times as much for them then An Aussie breeder?

I was finally offered a female that I found appealing enough, with good terms, and a reasonable price. I jumped on it and she flew here on Thanksgiving 2019!

She became the first <a href=“http://www.waterfallaussies.com”>  miniature American shepherds </a>to join Waterfall Aussies!

Let’s talk about mini aussies

Wait! Akc accepted these dogs as 

<a href=“http://www.waterfallaussies.com”>  miniature American shepherds </a>

For years they were known as miniature Australian shepherds just not with AKC OR ASCA. No reputable aussie breeder wanted these dogs in the registries called mini Aussies! 

Why? 

Well it came down to untraceable pedigrees. So many of these dogs looked like they were crossed with chihuahuas, papillons, shelties, corgi, cavalier King Charles spaniels, Pomeranian, even some spitz crosses.

So a group of breeders got together and started petitioning to get them accepted. Usasa got involved and said they needed a new name. Were to be considered a different breed. 

Obvious similarities are abundant in the breed. Notably color patterns, no tail, herding instinct, training ability to name a few. 

The big difference was size! A miniature American shepherd can weigh as little as 15 lbs. usually these dogs are at the bottom of the height standard of 13” for females. The larger side of the standard is 17” for females and you’d think that 4” isn’t much but it makes a huge difference! 

Check out the MAS breed and see if there is anything you like about them!