What's your favorite thing about Australian Shepherds?

• "What's your favorite thing about Australian Shepherds?"

I find it ludicrous that neither the people who used them in the USA (where there were so few of them that most owners had to cross-breed to get their next litter) nor the AKC had the mental energy & talent to learn their history and give them an ACCURATE place of origin and breed-type!

🔸1: They are NOT Australian! Their ONLY connection with Australia was that some were used to accompany the Merino sheep that were being taken from the Spanish/Portuguese parts of Europe to Australia. The dogs then drove the Merino sheep to the Australian areas with vegetation a bit similar to the parts of Europe they came from. Once the sheep had been delivered and paid for, the shepherds (humans, rancheros) and their dogs sailed on to the USA.

🔸2: Their original "type" was all "Collie" - very similar to Border Collies (just as the main ancestors of the NZ Huntaway were). But under USAmerican conditions several other breeds were used to produce enough litters to do the work that the sheep farmers aka "nesters" needed done. But look at the OTHER breeds that have the words "Shepherd Dog" in their name and you will see that the "Australian Shepherd" is definitely more Collie than Shepherd Dog. It's too late to get the breed renamed something like "Spanish Collie", but an attempt should be made to get it labelled as USAmerican!

Because of [Amos]'s rave, I looked for their performance here in the 2 sports he mentioned.

🟣 In 2019 just 1 "Australian Shepherd" competed in Obedience Trials here, ending up 219th= of about 360 that were placed on at least one occasion. Despite the competition from Border Collies, 4 GSDs ended up in the Obedience Top 20: https://www.dogsnz.org.nz/shows/top-20-results-obe... shows your their names & breeds & overall rankings.

🟢 I can't find any website here that totals-up the year's results in Agility Trials, but imagine that the "Australian Shepherd" would be similarly "also ran" there.

 King Les The Lofty - first pup in 1950, GSD trainer & breeder as of Easter 1968

I can't think of anything except for maybe the coat colors.  They are pretty neat.  Too much busy busy busy for me.

The fact that I don't own one

About how I don’t have one and how I’ve never seen one or been around one or have any interest in them 

They make great obedience and agility dogs, but not pets.  They are a working breed, and like Border Collie have an obsessive/compulsive NEED to work (and if not HERDING -what they are were BRED FOR) must have a number of alternative jobs, and a ton of exercise.  That makes them a difficult breed to make into "JUST" a pet.

Never owned one, so cannot really have a `favourite` thing about them. 

I do like the fact that they are working dogs and should not just be bred as pets. 

My favorites are all equal. Their winter is my summer or something. But that german shepard Rin Tinnshenager? C,mon, man. Lil achtung up for me.

My neighbor has one.  It's like any other dog on speed.

I have no favorite thing about Australian Shepherds.