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