Miniature Australian Sheperds

[.sarah]

From what I've heard, they have a lot of disorders in the health and temperment department because of how they were bred. They were supposedly bred from dwarf Aussies.

My friend has one as well as two "standard" Aussies. The standards are great dogs, the miniature is a pain in the butt!!

I could be wrong though, I don't know much about Australian Shepherds.

[Jessika]

Apparently its a "breed" but not an official one. I suppose you could consider it yet another "designer breed". Breeding any dog for size alone (ie: mini, teacups, etc) is wrong, IMO.

They DO have a registry however (that does not make them any more legit though).
http://www.mascaonline.org/
Its only about 10 years old, however.

Many breeders who breed standard Aussies also breed "miniature Aussies" I suppose so they can pass off the non-standard Aussies as "miniature" ones and still make money

History: http://members.aol.com/MiniAussie/History.htm

[wolfsoul]

Miniatures do have the same temperment as regular Aussies because they are technically the same breed -- though they are still a seperate breed, there were never any other breeds added into the lines. All they did was breed small aussies to small aussies and keep breeding them smaller. They are really no different in any way other than size, as they are still Aussies.