When is an Aussie dog not an Aussie dog?

Tweet

The answer is when it’s an Australian Shepherd. Belle Starr (@BelleStarr) and I were discussing the breed so I decided to share my findings with you all. The ‘Aussie’ as it is often known was developed on ranches in the western United States during the 19th century, its predecessors having been brought over by the Basque people of western Europe. It seems the Basques lived briefly in Australia before moving on to America. And that seems to be the main and virtually only connection that the Australian shepherd has with Australia! Their popularity rose after World War II when they became popular with stockmen for their versatility and ability when herding sheep and cattle. Like all working dogs they have a lot of energy and are generally best suited to some kind of ‘work’. They are used for a range of occupations outside of herding including search and rescue, detection, guiding, service and therapy. Recently selective breeding has seen the development of miniature and toy Aussies. Although they come in solid colours, it is the merle (mottled) colouring which most easily distinguishes them from other breeds. The eye colour also varies greatly and often dogs will have each eye a different colour. Another quite common feature is a naturally bobbed or partially bobbed (stubby) tail although the majority have a full tail. The photos are from Wikimedia Commons. The top one is courtesy: sannse (Photo taken by sannse) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)]. And the one of the dogs head courtesy: daveynin (Flickr: 2010 PA Kennel Assoc. Dog Show) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)].