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
History of the Miniature Australian Shepherd AKA the North American
Shepherd
copyright 2008 Lynn Fremuth
The Miniature Australian
Shepherd (aka North American Shepherd) was developed as a different
breed from the Australian Shepherd. Most Australian Shepherd
fanciers are not familiar with the founding Miniature Austalian
Shepherds because they weren't included in ASCA's registry as "A"
(foundation) dogs, and their lines were purposely developed
separately from the ASCA Australian Shepherd, using NSDR registry.
I'll be referring to the
Miniature Australian Shepherd/North American Shepherd/North American
Miniature Australian Shepherd/Toy Australian Shepherd interchangably.
The breed's various names and changes to those names over the years,
and the more recent development and promotion of the Toy (and even
"Teacup") by Mini/NAS breeders, makes referring to them by their
individual names rather cumbersome.
Now, let's start at the
beginning of the Miniature Australian Shepherd breed. Who was
Cordova's Spike ? Well, he's sort of like Harper's Old Smokey is to
Australian Shepherds. If you go back far enough in an Australian
Shepherd pedigree, you'll probably find Smokey. And if you go back
far enough in a Miniature Australian Shepherd pedigree, you'll
probably find Spike.
How significant are Spike
and his breeder/owner(s) to the development of the Miniature
Australian Shepherd?
"In 1968 a horse woman in
Norco, California, began a breeding program specifically to produce
very small Australian Shepherds. Her name was Doris Cordova, and the
most well known dog from her kennel is Cordova's Spike. Spike was
placed with Bill and Sally Kennedy, also of Norco, California, to
continue to develop a line of miniature Aussies under the B/S kennel
name. Another horseman, Chas Lasater of Valhalla Kennels soon joined
the ranks of mini breeders.
"Cordova, Lasater and the
Kennedy's together attempted to form the first parent club for the
miniatures. Although the club never quite got off the ground, their
stated purpose for developing the miniatures was to produce an
Australian Shepherd under 17" who had the heart, intelligence and
drive to work stock, and yet be small enough to travel easily to
stock shows and be a 'house' dog."
Charles Lasater is still
breeding Miniature Australian Shepherds. On his website he refers to
the Miniature as a *breed* unto itself, not as a "variety" of
Australian Shepherd. He notes, "The Miniature Australian Shepherd is
recognized as a breed and is registered by the Nation al Stock Dog
Registry, located in Butler Indiana." On his "History" page, he
writes, "The Miniature Australian Shepherd was started as a breed in
1968 from a group of small select Australian Shepherds."
"During the 1960's, a
Californian Australian Shepherd enthusiast acquired several small
working Aussies from the rodeo circuit. Intrigued by their compact
size, she worked with a veterinarian to develop a breeding program
in order to preserve the trait, which quickly resulted in litters
producing both dogs only 13 to 14 inches tall as well as larger
Australian Shepherds. The smaller dogs eventually became known as
'miniature' Australian Shepherds."
From NAMASCUSA: "The North
American Miniature Australian Shepherd Club of the USA(NAMASCUSA)
was originally formed in 1990 as the Miniature Australian Shepherd
Club of the USA (MASCUSA). NAMASCUSA/MASCUSA is the first parent
club devoted solely to the registration, development and promotion
of the Miniature Australian Shepherd (a.k.a. North American
Shepherd)."
MASCUSA was founded as a
*breed club* for the Miniature Aussie, as demonstrated by the
advertisement it placed in the National Stock Dog Magazine in 1990,
referring to the Miniature Australian Shepherd breed.
It must be noted at this
point that the AKC's recognition of the Australian Shepherd in 1993
forever sealed the division between Australian Shepherds and
Miniature Australian Shepherds. From the NAMASCUSA website "History"
page, circa 2002:
"In 1993, AKC officially
recognized the Australian Shepherd, but did not include the
miniatures in that recognition."
See full archived page,
which presents the history of the Miniature Australian
The Miniature Australian
Shepherd Club of America is a "breakaway" parent club, formed by
people who objected to MASCUSA's continued pursuit of separate breed
identity for Miniature Australian Shepherd and to the necessary name
change that allowed the Mini/NAS to continue showing as a rare
breed. It should come as no surprise that MASCA has "expunged" any
reference to being a separate breed from their "official history".
It does not serve their purposes.
"The parent club for the
Miniature Australian Shepherd, the Miniature Australian Shepherd
Club of America (MASCA) was formed in 1996 by a dedicated group of
enthusiasts in response to the need for a central organization
running a straightforward registry and providing fair and consistent
management of the Miniature Australian Shepherd."
MASCA also identifies itself
as "the oldest and largest extant parent club for the Australian
Shepherd of the miniature variety (miniature Australian Shepherd)."
How can MASCA claim to be
older than NAMASCUSA when NAMASCUSA was formed six years *before*
MASCA? The answer is in the single word, "variety." MASCA was
founded to promote the Miniature as a "variety" of the Australian
Shepherd. NAMASCUSA, the original parent club and the
longer-established of the two, had a history of identifying the
Miniature/North American Shepherd as a *separate breed* from the
Australian Shepherd. NAMASCUSA was once NASCUSA was once MASCUSA,
and the club's name change in itself tells a tale.
The most significant point
is that neither MASCA nor MASCUSA/NASCUSA/NAMASCUSA was in existence
at the dawn of the Miniature Australian Shepherd breed, which can be
traced to no later than 1982. The founders of the Miniature Austra
lian Shepherd breed did not register their dogs with
ASCA. They used NSDR alone
at the beginning, eventually registering them as *Miniature*
Australian Shepherds, not as Australian Shepherds. The distinction
was purposeful. The founders intended to distinguish their dogs as a
separate breed from the Australian Shepherd. There is no truth to
the commonly believed assertion that Miniature Aussie breeders
"broke away" from ASCA so they could more "fairly" show their
"variety" in conformation shows.
Which brings us back to
Cordova's Spike.
Both clubs point to Mrs.
Doris Cordova as the driving founder of the Miniature Australian
Shepherd breed. MASCA's "official history" prefers to downplay her
significant contribution, focusing the spotlight instead on ASCA and
the Australian Shepherd. NAMASCUSA *almost* gets it right. But
politics being what they are, even they can't quite admit that Doris
Cordova's stated goal was to create an entirely new breed, which she
did. She called the breed "Miniature Australian Shepherd."
Spike's descendants are
virtually 100% NON-ASCA registered. His offspring weren't. Their
offspring weren't. On down through the generations to this very day.
There was no "breaking away from ASCA" by breeders of Miniatures.
Miniatures were never were *part* of ASCA's registry. And if AKC
hadn't opened their studbooks to all comers back in 1991, and again
twice after that, Spike's descendants wouldn't be AKC-registered,
either.
Mrs. Cordova founded a new
breed with Spike. When she was satisfied that the new breed was well
enough along in its development, she promoted the creation of a
single-breed registry for Miniature Australian Shepherds. That ideal
seems to have met with little success, until MASCUSA came along
about nine years later. By then, of course, it *was* all about
showing this "new rare breed" in Rare Breed conformation shows,
separately from the Australian Shepherd.
Here is what Mrs. Doris
Cordova is documented to have said over twenty-five years ago:
"Based on a selective
breeding program and measured successes, we feel these dogs merit
their own registry. The inbred qualities of intelligence, fearless
ness, agility and endurance, as well as stature, are no less by
design than is the development of the miniature Schnauzer or Morgan
horse."
I'll pause here to direct a
question to the folks who claim the Miniature was developed to be a
“true variety” of Australian Shepherd. Did Mrs. Cordova compare the
Miniature Australian Shepherd to the Poodle, with its three
"varieties"? No. She compared it to the miniature Schnauzer, a
separate *BREED* from the Standard Schnauzer.
Mrs. Cordova then went on:
"Quite honestly, this
program is still developing and represents a new breed."
There it is. The Miniature
Australian Shepherd was, from the very start, developed as a NEW
BREED. Not a "variety". A different breed. That's why anyone doing a
pedigree search back to Cordova's Spike's will find nine (or more)
generations of Miniature Australian Shepherds.