Last Updated June 23, 2008

 

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF THE

NORTH AMERICAN SHEPHERD!

The North American Shepherd Association proudly announces that the North American Shepherd (formerly known as the Miniature Australian Shepherd) has been accepted into the Canine Developmental Health and Performance Registry, which partners with the United Kennel Club and represents the first step toward official breed recognition with the UKC. The UKC is the second largest all breed registry in the United States, and we celebrate this opportunity to have our breed finally recognized outside the rare breed show circuit.

HISTORY OF THE BREED: In the early 1900s Basque sheepherders traveled from their homelands to the Western United States, bringing with them flocks of sheep and herding dogs. Naturally, once here, the little blue dogs bred with other breeds, developing quite a hodge podge of looks. Cattle ranchers admired their working ability but needed a larger dog than the sheepherders required, so collie-types were infused in some lines to bring size up to better meet the ranchers needs. The horse community preferred a different style, often referring to theirs as "Little Saddle Dogs" because they were sometimes so small that a rider could pull one up onto a horse. The two sizes retained two traits in common, thanks to their shared ancestry of Basque working dogs, which no amount of breed mixing could destroy. Both were often blue merle in color and both possessed an inborn desire to herd everything they saw to include the family children.

By the 1960s fanciers of the "Bobtailed Shepherds" had produced two distinct types, based on the needs of the ranchers and owners who bred them. As a result of the expanding awareness of these remarkable dogs, fanciers formed breed clubs and actively began serious breeding programs to advance the preservation of the breeds . The Australian Shepherd Club of America (ASCA) began developing a breed standard focusing on the larger dogs, while the Miniature Australian Shepherd breeders of the 1960s developed their breed using smaller dogs in the 13 to 15 inch range. The Miniature Australian Shepherd fanciers obviously did not consider their dogs to be one and the same as the Australian Shepherd because they never registered their dogs in the Australian Shepherd Club of America (ASCA ) registry.

By 1980 a dog named Cordova's Spike was registered as the first Miniature Australian Shepherd after a nearly two-decade long breeding program. As you can see in the picture, Cordova's Spike looked very little like the Australian Shepherd of that day. Spike was the result of breeding a different genetic selection from among what was generally referred to as "little blue dogs". In 1982, Doris Cordova, owner of Cordova's Spike, published a letter to fellow breeders in the National Stock Dog Magazine. In her letter, Mrs. Cordova stated that the Miniature Australian Shepherd was to be its own breed. To emphasize that the Miniature Aussie was not a size variety, she compared her breed to that of the Miniature Schnauzer, which is not a size variety of the Standard or Giant Schnauzer. In the same way the Miniature Schnauzer is similar to the larger Schnauzer breeds, the Miniature Australian Shepherd looked "similar" to its cousin the Australian Shepherd. Unfortunately, Mrs. Cordova passed away before either the Australian Shepherd or the Miniature Australian Shepherd breeds were recognized outside of the rare breed circuit.

In 1991 the Australian Shepherd gained recognition with the American Kennel Club (AKC). At that time, as tiny minority of no more than 1% of the Miniature Australian Shepherd breeders considered their Miniatures enough like Australian Shepherds to take advantage of the opportunity to register their dogs with AKC as that breed. NSDR registry already had approximately 6000 Miniature Australian Shepherds registered in their registry when the Australian Shepherd went to AKC. The other 99% of the Miniature Australian Shepherd breeders chose to continue on course, advancing the interests of their breed, separate and apart from the Australian Shepherd, just as Mrs. Cordova's published writings in the NSDR magazine in 1982 had encouraged breeders to do.

In order to maintain the Miniature Aussie's eligibility to compete as a rare breed, fanciers could no longer use a name that implied miniaturization of an AKC recognized breed. So in the early 1990s they renamed the breed the North American Shepherd. By the mid-1990s, officers of the club for the North American Shepherd sent out a letter stating their breed's numbers had increased enough to consider moving on to breed recognition for the North American Shepherd. Unfortunately for the breed, a new club organized with a goal totally opposite the desires of the founders of the breed forty years earlier; they advocated pursuing recognition as a "variety" of the AKC Australian Shepherd. Apparently they based their new premise on those 1% of Miniature Aussie breeders' registering their dogs as Australian Shepherds when the AKC stud books were still open. The new group of Miniature Australian Shepherd fanciers pushed for the other 99% to give up the idea of breed recognition, and embrace the notion of "variety" status.

Over the past twelve years, the North American Shepherd breed has grown to approx 20,000 dogs, and has flourished in a number of breed clubs and registries. However not until the late Doris Cordova's dream of official breed status is attained can DNA breed profiling begin, proving parentage of each breeding and ultimately the purity of the breed itself. Our club organized with one purpose as its objective: to gain breed recognition with at least one of the two major registries (AKC or UKC) whereupon DNA profiling may begin, eventually allowing the closure of the stud books, with all future breedings being verified. This will prevent unscrupulous breeders' intentionally crossing other breeds into our lines and identify incorrect parentage when an accidental cross of breeds has occurred in facilities housing more than one breed.

Those of us who love the North American Shepherd have many to thank, most especially the Miniature Australian Shepherd Club of the late 1960s whose members refused to let their "Little Saddle Dogs" become lost to the future. Our breed can now stand on its own merit and warm the hearts of many as we start the process of closing the stud books in preservation of the healthiest, most versatile and one of the largest in dog numbers to ever enter a major dog registry in the United States as a newly recognized breed.

 

REFERENCES

Dog World Magazine May 2005

Dog Fancy Magazine July 2004

Australian Shepherd , Dog World Magazine,  Volume 15 by Audrey Pavia

All About Aussies by Jeanne Joy Hartnagle Taylor

Family Shopper, August 24th, 1961 by Mrs. Ely

http://www.roughcolliesofdistinction.com/breed_ancestry.htm

http://www.hrdndog.com/pedigrees/