Where does Australian Shepherd (dog breed) come from?
The Australian Shepherd comes from the western United States. Despite its name, ranchers developed it in California in the 1800s to work the sheep flocks of the West, and the 'Australian' probably came from dogs that arrived with shiploads of sheep from Australia.
Sheepdogs for the American West
Spanish settlers brought sheep and herding dogs to North America as early as the 1500s, and the breed partly descends from such dogs. In the mid-1800s the California Gold Rush created a soaring demand for sheep to feed the miners. Flocks were sent west from the Midwest and East with their British-derived sheepdogs, many of them working collies, often merle. From California the breed spread across the western states, where ranchers valued it for handling sheep and cattle.
A name off the boat
Some of the sheep brought west in the late 1800s came from Australia. Newspaper reports of their arrival mentioned the 'Australian Shepherds' that came with them, a loose type of dog mostly of British stock. Nobody in Australia used the name; Americans did, and in time every merle sheepdog got it. The dogs were also called Spanish, New Mexican or California Shepherds. A 2017 genetic study placed the breed with British herding dogs such as the Collie and the Border Collie.
Tricks at the rodeo
For over a century the Australian Shepherd was purely a working dog, almost unknown outside the livestock business. That changed in the mid-1900s, when Jay Sisler, a rodeo performer, toured rodeos across the western states with Aussies that performed all kinds of tricks. A breed club, the Australian Shepherd Club of America, soon followed. The United Kennel Club recognised the breed in 1979 and the American Kennel Club in the 1990s.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org ↗ · akc.org › australian shepherd history behind breed ↗ · akc.org › australian shepherd facts ↗
