by Sue Ritter
INTRODUCTION
Every breed comes from the desire of individual breeders to develop a dog that fills a need that other dogs just don’t fill. As breedings toward that purpose continue, a breed emerges with dogs that have an identifiable look, temperament and function. So is the case with the development of the Miniature American Shepherd breed.
However, the Miniature American Shepherd’s origin is deeply rooted in the Australian Shepherd. This is well-accepted and visually obvious since the main difference between the two is size. Some people have voiced that the size difference is due to breeding Australian Shepherds to smaller breeds, but anyone who has had a connection to Australian Shepherds prior to the 1990’s knows that 2 phenotypes existed even then in Aussies.
There were lines of Aussies that consistently produced dogs below 18” and then there lines that produced dogs that grew as large as 25”. Selective breeding produced dogs that fit the current Aussie size standard, but selectively breeding the smaller Aussies did produce even smaller ones that were called the Miniature Australian Shepherd. With AKC recognition, they were then called the Miniature American Shepherd.
Most acknowledged that there were breeders who brought in other breeds to decrease the size of the Miniature Australian Shepherd. On the other hand, it’s also common knowledge that some Australian Shepherd breeders brought in other breeds like Rough Collies or Border Collies to add coat or improve herding ability in the Aussies as late as the 1990’s. Prior to DNA parentage testing these “mixed” breedings could not be proven nor stopped. But those breedings were only minor contributors, if much contribution at all, to the development of the size difference between the Australian Shepherd and the Miniature American Shepherd since the genetic basis for size difference existed in the Australian Shepherd already. The history of the Australian Shepherd below will show the origin of the two size phenotypes.
Further proof that the Miniature American Shepherd had its genetic roots firmly planted in the Australian Shepherd breed is that on the first day that the AKC accepted registration of the Miniature American Shepherd, hundreds and hundreds of AKC Australian Shepherds were transferred by their owners into registry as AKC Miniature American Shepherds. Hundreds more followed suit by transferring within the next years. United States Australian Shepherd Club of America (USASA), the parent club of the Australian Shepherd, had determined that over 15% of their breed’s registry were dogs that could be registered as Miniature American Shepherds based on size.
Since the AKC Miniature American Shepherd comes from the AKC Australian Shepherd, then why are they called the “Miniature” American Shepherd when there is no American Shepherd. Even more curious is why aren’t they called the Miniature “Australian” Shepherd? Again, we must turn to the Australian Shepherd’s history as they entered the AKC registry to find these answers.
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN SHEPHERD
Beginning in the Basque region in the mountains of Northern Spain, it was a practice to breed the larger guardian sheepdogs and the smaller herding dogs together to get a more all around flock dog. (1, my personal interview with a Basque Shepherd, 1985). Hence, we get the 2 size phenotypes. These dogs would grip cattle if needed, gather stray stock, work as front dogs to lead stock — not just as heelers, and turn stock if needed by bumping their shoulders with their bodies. These are the exact ways an Australian Shepherd herds that sets them apart from a Border Collie. In addition, we find the natural bobtail and merle coloration genes coming from the smaller dogs such as the Pyrenean Shepherd.
The Merino sheep also came from this region of Europe. As a popular breed of sheep, flocks were sold to England and Australia. As went the sheep, so went the shepherds and their dogs. The evidence of this in the UK exists in Wales where an Old Welsh Bobtail can be found that could easily pass as an Australian Shepherd. It herds just as described above. (https://allaboutaussiesblog.wordpress.com/2014/06/30/old-welsh-bob-tail/ accessed 4/5/2025). Also, in Australia, the Basque Shepherd’s little blue dog could be found in the large stations with their sheep until the mid-1900’s.
In the 1800’s, the sheep flocks were imported through the Pacific coast into America. Again, the shepherds and their dogs accompanied the sheep. The dogs were never referred to as Australian dogs in Australia, but when they came to American shores, people started referring to them as the “Aussies’ dog.” They were easily recognized as the little, natural bobtailed, blue dog. As early as the 1860’s, there is photographic documentation of several typical Aussie dogs and puppies with a large family in the West. (1957-1977 Australian Shepherd yearbook, put out by ASCA).
Possibly due to being far more suited to the job of flock herder and guardian of various types of stock in the American West than in Australia, the ‘Aussie’s dog’ grew in popularity throughout the Western States and waned in popularity in Australia. By the end of the 20th century, they were unknown in Australia. However, as late as the 1920-30’s Australian-born breeding dogs were imported to America (Mrs. Roy Cotton, “History of the Australian Shepherd in the Northwest” article).
Over the years, other dogs throughout the west such as the Spanish and English herding dogs, were bred in as well, but the look and the herding style remained true through selective breeding. By the 1950’s, the breed was named and first recognized through a couple different registries, most notably the Australian Shepherd Club of America (ASCA). This organization became the main registry and promoter of the breed.
Over the next few decades, ASCA developed into a self-sufficient registry and a very efficient promoter of the breed carefully recording litters and preserving pedigrees as well as offering conformation shows and performance events with titles for the truly versatile breed. In fact, their well-established herding program became a useful model in the development of AKC’s herding program.
AUSTRALIAN SHEPHERD PATH TO AKC
Early on, the members of ASCA had voted to seek AKC recognition and that goal drove much of ASCA’s development as a club, but in the late 1980’s, another very close membership vote to pursue AKC recognition resulted in a “no” vote to turn over ASCA’s studbooks to AKC. Because the vote was so close, there were many disgruntled members.
A sizable nucleus of top Australian Shepherd breeders were undeterred by these results and prepared to move forward anyway. They formed a separate club and started efforts to seek AKC breed recognition. Because there never was an Australian Shepherd breed recognized and registered in Australia by its kennel club, AKC told them they would need the approval of the Australian Kennel Club to use the name Australian Shepherd.
Unsure if that approval could be secured, these breeders decided to rename the breed as the American Shepherd and their club was called The American Shepherd Club, INC. They incorporated in 1986 complete with by-laws, breed standard and membership application, however the work to get Australian Kennel Club approval proceeded.
Longtime breed historian, Dr. Phil Wildhagen and several other established breeders worked to uncover the proof of the breed’s origin from Australia. Once enough proof was collected, he went to Australia to present this information to the members of the Australian Kennel Club who subsequently voted to grant their approval.
Having secured the Australian Shepherd name, another issue arose. AKC had no method to accept an American breed without incorporating a full registry’s studbook, but they were motivated by the breeders’ interest and number of dogs in the breed to do this as quickly as possible in the case of the Australian Shepherd. However, instead of the American Shepherd Club establishing a registry and waiting for years to gain recognition, AKC made a bold decision to approve the use of the Foundation Stock Service (FSS) to register dogs until the breed met the standards for full recognition. AKC’s FSS existed for foreign breeds brought to America, but was never used by a breed developed in America before this time. It is now used for all breeds’ initial registry prior to full recognition.
In 1990, with the Australian Shepherd name approval, the United States Australian Shepherd Association — founded by the same but expanded core of people who started the American Shepherd Club — was named the parent club of the AKC for the Australian Shepherd and in 1991, AKC accepted individual applications for registration of Australian Shepherds from ASCA and from National Stock Dog Registry (NSDR), a division of the International English Shepherd Registry (IESR). Each dog owner submitted registration and pedigree information with an application for FSS registration.
At that time, NSDR had been registering the Miniature Australian Shepherds, but since they were not viewed as a separate breed the registration certificate did not indicate the size or name difference. All Australian Shepherds were allowed into the AKC FSS from NSDR. ASCA also had some smaller dogs, too. Although they were less common, they certainly existed. As a matter of fact, my first ASCA Aussie was barely 17 inches.
SEPARATION OF THE SIZES AND NAMING THE NEW BREED
From 1994 to 2009, the existence of size differences in the AKC Australian Shepherd became apparent with the increased popularity of agility trials. The smaller Aussies were seen as having an unfair advantage and USASA members loudly voiced their desire to separate them from the Aussies. Research of the AKC Australian Shepherd studbook was initiated by USASA and it showed that 15% of the dogs could qualify as smaller Aussies. However, the only way to separate these smaller Aussies and maintain their AKC registration was to create a different breed, especially since AKC was not allowing varieties of breeds any more.
The North American Miniature Australian Shepherd Club of the USA (NAMASCUSA), later renamed the Miniature American Shepherd Club of the USA, was asked to become the parent club which was accepted by their membership’s vote. The club representatives had approached AKC previously hoping to use the same path that the Australian Shepherd did in seeking AKC recognition, but that process would be a long, arduous process fraught with potential obstacles including proof of a 3-generation pedigree and USASA approval.
Since the intertwined registration of the two sizes of Aussies already existed in the AKC registry and USASA was motivated to remove the smaller Aussies from the Aussies’ registry, the path of separation into two breeds became clear. The new smaller breed would come from the larger breed’s registration. With a large initial makeup of the new breed’s registration coming from the AKC Australian Shepherd registry, a solid foundation was established upon which the new breed could build. Then, the new breed could be added to from other acceptable registries with dogs that had vetted pedigrees. MASCUSA registered dogs made up the bulk of those additional registrations and vetting of pedigrees prior to AKC registration took place by a person approved by MASCUSA for all other registries.
NAMING THE NEW BREED
One point of contention remained and that was the breed’s name. Obviously, NAMASCUSA wanted the name to be kept as the Miniature Australian Shepherd. However, USASA had stipulations for forming the new breed that AKC allowed and that NAMASCUSA had to accept. One requirement was that the word “Australian” could not be used in the name which, therefore, precluded the use of the name Miniature Australian Shepherd. (“Road to AKC,” MASCUSA.org accessed 4/24/2025)
Because of this, NAMASCUSA was tasked with coming up with a name other than their original choice. The membership survey with over 400 responses resulted in two top choices. These were Miniature American Shepherd and North American Shepherd. Interesting to note that American Shepherd was also a choice offered in that survey with considerably less votes than the other two.
In 2011, an official membership ballot vote was taken using those two names. With 364 responses, 187 or 53.6% of the membership chose Miniature American Shepherd. This choice not only preserved the MAS initials used previously, but it also paid direct homage to the name chosen for the Australian Shepherd when they had been denied the right to use the word “Australian” in their name just like the MASCUSA was denied that right.
In actuality, with the fact that the Australian Shepherd was developed and first recognized in America, the Miniature American Shepherd is truly the smaller version of the breed that could more appropriately be called the American Shepherd. Name aside, the intertwined history and genetics of the now two separate AKC breeds cannot be denied and the phenotype of size remains the distinguishing difference.