The Australian Shepherd is – as it’s name indicates – basically a herding dog. It exists in a multitude of colors that are very original and became with the time an excellent compagnon that excells in agilty, herding and utility.
You can find all morphological caracteristics of this great dog on http://www.asca.org Colors, caracter and morphologie are the same for the three sizes, the standard, mini and toy version. The size of the standard being fixed at 51 & 58 cm for the male, and 46-53 cm for the female.

Our standard aussie’s are FCI entered (LOF, ST.HUBERT, FCI and/or ASCA) and have recognized pedigrees. The Mini & toy version are not approved in Europe yet, but several associations are working on it because the mini has a tremendous success in the USA being a great performer in agility. A mini aussie won the american agility championship in 2006.

The miniature aussie is very successful in the USA were different associations exist. The biggest ones being the NSDRa National Stock Dog Registry (www.nationalstockdog.com) and ASDR (American Dog Registry) who is the oldest and the biggest organiser for herding shows in the usa. Namascusa (www.Namascusa.com) and Masca (www.mascaonline.org) now work together and group an enormous amount of dogs, they’re mostly orientated on ring events (beauty), agility & fly-ball.

Only a few breeders in Europe imported mini’s and aim to breed them. The mini varies between 35 and 45cms, the toy is smaller and has minimum 25cms. In the USA breeding these mini’s and toys was very natural because at the beginning the Australian Shepherd was much smaller then he is today. So there is a large choice of professional and amateur breeders.

For those who are interested by the history of the australian shepherd, there is a marvellous website to visit ; http://www.abquisto.net/history/index2.html that shows through the decades the evolution of the aussie with superbe pictures. This website is a pretty demonstration of the evolution of the Australian Shepherd and might bring up some real questions to the actual breeders. A website that’s a treasury for all amateurs !

For those who have some questions about the special coloring of the Australian Shepherd, they should have a look at www.ashgi.org/color/ A website that makes you wonder if you think you know and makes you convinced of the use of DNA merling testing. Also a must to visit for every Aussie-lover.

So, on the contrary of we mind think, the Miniature Australian Shepherd is not a fashion thing but rather a return to the source. Some of the breeders with whom we work have more then 35 years of experience breeding these marvellous dogs and its miniature & toy version. These two versions are pretty close since only 2,5cms separates them, with a size standard fixed by their associations.
Every respectable Miniature Australian Shepherd breeder will give priority in his breeding program to the comformation and then will try to breed smaller dogs by choosing carefully the bloodlines. So today, a enormous quantity of healthy and well minded bloodlines is available to guarantee a safe breeding program.

Maggymaussies has invested a lot in finding the right bloodlines of at least 7 to 8 generations with the right conformation and health to respond to the current standards of the breed. Whether they are big or toy, the general tests remain the same (hips & eyes). So on all levels a deep research was necessary.
Being able to benefit of several years of experience and import that knowledge together with the dogs was the aim of Maggymaussies. Being able to group the necessary foundation to start a guaranteed breeding program.

Maggymaussies is a small familial breeder and specializes on quality not quantity. Color breeding isn’t our major goals neither but conformation and character are more important. Health being also our main goal, all our puppies have vaccinations and deworming programs.

If he is small or big, the Australian Shepherd is a thrue compagnon and not at all a kenneldog or to be locked in all day. A real complicity between owner and puppy is necessary. A mini or toy can be very happy in an appartement as long as they got their play- & walktime and don’t feel alone. By nature the mini’s & toys are childrens best friends, they simply love to play with them. These little dogs will anyhow perform for there owners and will try to please them in all ways. Nevertheless, since these small dogs have a short but intensif period of growing they will need the necessary food and care to grow up to healthy adults that can give up to 15 years of friendship.