Australian Shepherds (All Sizes) Puppies

One breed at three scales

This page gathers the Australian Shepherds we carry so you can look at the sizes together rather than one at a time: the standard, the miniature, and the toy.

A word about the names first, because they are genuinely confusing. The standard Australian Shepherd is a long-established breed in the American Kennel Club’s Herding Group. The smaller one was bred down from it in California in the late 1960s, went by Miniature Australian Shepherd for years, and was recognized by the AKC in 2015 under a different name — the Miniature American Shepherd — which is why you will still see both labels in use. Toy-sized Aussies are bred smaller again and are not a recognized size division. What all of them share is the ancestry, the coat, the colours and, above everything else, the temperament.

Where the breed actually comes from

Despite the name, the Australian Shepherd was developed in the western United States. The Australian part of the story is indirect: Basque shepherds arrived in California and the mountain west by way of Australia, bringing their working dogs with them, and the name attached itself to the dogs rather than to the country they were finally bred in.

What matters more than the name is the job. This is a stock dog, put together on ranches for stamina, brains, a willingness to work a long day and an eye for anything that moves. It became a household name through Western culture — rodeo crowds through the 1950s watched Jay Sisler’s trick Aussies between events, and a great many people bought their first one on the strength of that. The AKC recognized the breed in 1991.

Carry that working history into everything below, because it is identical in all three sizes.

The standard Australian Shepherd

The full-size Aussie stands about twenty to twenty-three inches at the shoulder for males and eighteen to twenty-one for females, and usually weighs somewhere between forty and sixty-five pounds. It is a solid, athletic, slightly-longer-than-tall dog with real bone through the shoulders and an easy ground-covering trot that it can hold all afternoon.

This is the size for a household with room and a routine that already involves getting outdoors. A standard Aussie is happiest with a proper daily outing and something to think about afterwards, and it will take on as much as you care to offer: hiking, trail running, agility, herding trials, dock diving, obedience, rally, or scent work. Give it a job and it hands you back the best version of itself.

See the standard Australian Shepherds

The Miniature American Shepherd

The mini stands about fourteen to eighteen inches for males and thirteen to seventeen for females, and generally weighs somewhere in the twenties or thirties. Set beside a standard it looks like exactly the same dog viewed from further away — same outline, same coat, same colours, same expression, all of it scaled down.

It is the size most households end up choosing, because it fits an ordinary house and an ordinary car while keeping the working temperament completely intact. Minis do very well at agility and rally, where the smaller frame is an advantage on the turns, and they are a comfortable size to travel with. Nothing about the mind has been reduced along with the body, which is the point of the section further down this page.

See the mini Australian Shepherds

The toy Australian Shepherd

Toys are bred smaller again, generally standing under about fourteen inches and weighing somewhere around twelve to seventeen pounds. Because there is no recognized standard for the size, expect more variation here than in the other two, and ask about the parents behind a particular puppy rather than trusting a figure on a page.

A toy Aussie covers less ground on a walk, fits comfortably into a flat or a small yard, and travels almost anywhere. It arrives with the full herding personality in a very portable body, which a good many owners consider the best of both, provided the daily thinking work actually happens.

See the toy Australian Shepherds

What every size shares

The mind does not scale down. Breeding an Aussie smaller reduces the body and leaves the brain precisely where it was. A toy Aussie is as bright, as watchful and as keen for a task as a standard one, and the households that get on best with the small sizes are the ones that planned for it.

The good news is that mental work is quick and enjoyable to provide. Twenty focused minutes settles an Aussie of any size more thoroughly than an hour of unstructured yard time — a training session, a scatter feed in the grass, a scent game, a puzzle, a new trick each week, or simply a walk that allows real time to investigate. Give the job somewhere to go and you have a very easy dog.

The herding eye is standard equipment. Aussies notice movement and want to organise it, which is why a puppy of any size may start circling children or bicycles. It is instinct, and it has a simple answer: teach the puppy that movement means fetch a toy and bring it to a person. Reward that from the first week, redirect early, and the adult ends up doing it automatically.

The coat is the same in all three. A medium-length, weather-resistant double coat, straight to slightly wavy, with feathering down the back of the legs and a fuller ruff around the neck that is heavier on males. A slicker brush and an undercoat rake once or twice a week keeps it in order, and for a fortnight twice a year, when the undercoat turns over with the seasons, the rake comes out daily. Leave the coat full rather than clipping it short, because a double coat works in both directions and the standing outer layer keeps sun off the skin.

The colours are the same too. Black, blue merle, red and red merle, each with or without white markings and copper points, in combinations that are effectively individual. The eyes are the other showpiece: brown, blue, amber, one of each, or a single iris marbled with two colours at once.

And the warm-weather routine is the same. In a Florida or Tennessee summer the early and late hours are the pleasant ones for both of you, with shade, water and a cool floor through the middle of the day.

Come and see the sizes together

Photographs are no help at all with size. Three Aussies in the same room sort themselves out in about four seconds, and most people arrive certain about which one they want and leave with a different answer.

Our Australian Shepherd puppies come from our network of licensed breeders, and our team can tell you how a particular puppy has been getting on and roughly where its parents sat on the size range. We have a store in Orlando and one in Nashville, and you are welcome to sit on the floor with a puppy for as long as you like before deciding anything. Find directions and hours, and ask about financing while you are here. Every puppy here goes home with its vet records, its vaccination history and a health warranty, and our team will walk you through what those cover.