Charon, I'm an Aussie, and I have owned, worked with and bred Australian Cattle Dogs all my life, but have never even heard of an Australian Shepard....what are they?
I hadn't either until he announced he was getting one. It seems to have a smaller Shepherd's body with interesting colors and a thick, heavy coat. Here's a link.
http://www.australianshepherds.org/about.htmlWhile there are many theories as to the origin of the Australian Shepherd, the breed as we know it today developed exclusively in the United States. The Australian Shepherd was given its name because of their association with the Basque sheepherders who came to the United States from Australia in the 1800's.
"Blue" (the Aussie) used to be the most obnoxious one of his three dogs (lots of loud barking), with the French[?] Mastiff (Napoleon) being the sweetest and the female collie lab mix in between. Now he is about the sweetest as he has aged. When I brought my Scnoodle puppy over for a visit Blue was the only one let out to play, and the Schnoodle's high speed sprinting under his legs had him freaked out and trying to get in my puppy's crate
Since Napoleon can kill a rabbit in one bite and my Schnoodle is about rabbit sized and high energy, we decided not to take any chances.
Napoleon is still a sweet, quite dog though it was his accidental bite that tore open my friend's hand. This does kind of change your perspective when you see how easily he could kill you if he really wanted to for some reason. As my friend said: "Up until now I always thought that I stood a chance if I was attacked, now I would have to be pretty lucky..." (not that he really worries about it)
Charon
