Australian Shepherd Puppies

The dog with the wrong name

The Australian Shepherd was made in the American West. The name is the one piece of the story that points somewhere else, and it has been confusing people for a century.

The likeliest explanation runs through the Basque country. Shepherds from the Pyrenees emigrated in the nineteenth century, a good many of them by way of Australia, and when they carried on to California and the mountain states they brought working dogs with them — their own, and collie-type stock picked up along the route. American stockmen saw good dogs arriving with men who had last been in Australia, and the name they gave those dogs stuck to a breed that was then developed, refined and fixed entirely on ranches in the American West.

What those ranchers selected for was usefulness. A dog that could gather sheep in the morning, move cattle in the afternoon, ride in the truck, mind the place at night and do the same again the next day at altitude. Everything about the modern Aussie — the medium size, the weatherproof coat, the stamina, the constant reading of your face — comes straight out of that job description.

The breed’s public career began after the Second World War, when western riding and rodeo became popular entertainment. Aussies worked the arenas as stock dogs and, in the hands of the rodeo trick trainer Jay Sisler, as performers whose routines drew crowds through the 1950s. The Australian Shepherd Club of America was founded in 1957, and the American Kennel Club recognized the breed in 1991.

Blue merle, red merle, black and red

Four colours are recognized, and each of them may carry white markings, copper points, or both: blue merle, red merle, solid black and solid red.

Merle is the pattern that makes people stop on the sidewalk. It dilutes patches of the base colour and leaves the rest at full strength, so the coat comes out marbled rather than blocked — dark irregular islands over a lighter ground, no two dogs marked alike. On a blue merle the base is black and the diluted areas go slate grey, which reads as silver-blue in daylight. On a red merle the base is liver and the diluted areas go buff or oatmeal, which reads as copper and cream. Add the white collar, blaze and legs and the copper eyebrows and cheeks that usually come with them, and a well-marked merle is one of the most striking outlines in dogs.

Solid black and solid red are just as correct and often overlooked. A black tri — black body, white collar, copper points — is a handsome, businesslike dog, and a great many of the best working Aussies have looked exactly like that.

The eyes are their own subject. Brown, blue, amber, and any combination of those, including flecks, marbling, and one eye of each colour. All of it is correct under the standard, and it gives the Aussie face a directness that photographs never quite catch.

Size, coat and the bobbed tail

Males stand about twenty to twenty-three inches at the shoulder and females about eighteen to twenty-one, with weight running roughly forty to sixty-five pounds. That is a medium dog: enough substance to work all day, light enough to put itself in the back of a truck.

The coat is a weather-resistant double coat of medium length, straight to moderately wavy, with feathering down the backs of the legs and a mane and frill over the neck and chest that is heavier on males. It is a practical coat rather than a fussy one, and it looks best when it is simply kept clean and brushed.

Grooming is a routine you settle into. A slicker brush and a comb once or twice a week, working section by section right down to the skin, keeps everything smooth. The places that ask for the most attention are behind the ears, under the front legs and through the trousers. Twice a year the undercoat turns over with the seasons, and for a fortnight the undercoat rake comes out daily and fills a bag with soft fluff before the routine returns to normal. Nails a little and often, ears wiped while you are already brushing, teeth done early enough that a puppy decides the toothbrush is a game. Fifteen minutes a couple of times a week covers the lot.

The tail varies. Some Aussies are born with a natural bobtail, which is an old and genuine feature of the breed; others carry a full tail, and docking was the traditional practice on the ranches. All of them turn up, and it is worth deciding what you like before you go looking.

A mind that wants a job

Talk to anyone who has lived with one and the first thing they mention is how much the dog notices. An Aussie keeps track of the household: who has picked up their keys, which door somebody used, whether the routine is about to change. That attentiveness is the herding brain ticking over in the background, and it is the whole pleasure of the breed.

They are devoted to their own people and take a moment to make up their minds about new ones, which is exactly what the standard asks for. Inside the family they are affectionate, funny and physically close — an Aussie would like to be in the room, ideally lying across the doorway of it. With children they are playful and game, and most of them treat a busy house as the best possible arrangement.

The herding instinct shows up in ordinary domestic ways. An Aussie will drift out to the edge of a group and bring the stragglers back in, take a rolling ball far more seriously than the ball deserves, and let you know when somebody is at the door. Give the instinct somewhere to go and it turns into one of the most entertaining things about living with the breed.

Training, sport and the shape of a day

Aussies are among the quickest studies in dogs, and they like being right. Keep the sessions short and cheerful, pay well in food or a tug toy, ask for one thing at a time, and stop while the dog still wants another go. Every adult in the house using the same words matters more than firmness does.

Twenty minutes of thinking does as much for this breed as an hour of plain walking, which is a useful thing to know. Puzzle feeders, a scent game with three cups, a few minutes of trick training before dinner, a hidden toy and a “find it” — all of it counts. So does giving the walk some content: a new street, a long line in an open field, time to read the ground properly.

There is also a whole world of dog sport that might have been designed for the breed, because in a sense it was. Herding trials are the obvious one. Agility suits the build and the speed, obedience and rally suit the mind, and disc, flyball, dock diving, tracking and scent work all have Aussies near the front. So do search and rescue and therapy work, for the same reason: this is a dog that likes being useful.

A day settles into a shape quickly. A good walk in the cool part of the morning, which in a Florida or Tennessee summer is the pleasant hour for both of you. Breakfast, then a doze somewhere central. A training game or a puzzle in the afternoon. Another walk in the evening, some ball in the yard, and then an Aussie stretched along the floor next to whoever has finally sat down, one ear still turning toward the kitchen.

Coming to meet the Australian Shepherd puppies

A photograph gets the merle and misses the rest. What you notice standing next to an Aussie puppy is the attention — how fast it works out where you are looking, and how quickly it offers you something in the hope that a game starts.

Our Australian Shepherd puppies come from our network of licensed breeders, and our team can tell you what a particular puppy has been like with people and with the other dogs. 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.