ASDR Not AKC

When we first decided that we wanted to buy a Miniature Australian Shepherd and started looking for puppies, we were surprised that very few breeders were offering their Mini Aussies with AKC registration. Having grown up owning Labrador Retrievers, this was very surprising. AKC was pretty much the gold standard in our eyes. We began to notice that almost every breeder instead was posting that they had ASDR registration for their Mini Aussies. We wondered why that was the case, and also, we wanted to know is ASDR is serious and legitimate registration comparable to the AKC?

If you are somewhat new to Miniature Australian Shepherds, you may have had a similar experience. Let us help explain a little if that is still the case. While the AKC is a great and reputable dog registration, they frustrated and agitated the Mini Aussie dog breeding community when they (the AKC) decided that they had the authority to rename the entire breed the "Miniature American Shepherd."

At this point, the vast majority of reputable Mini Aussie breeders began using ASDR (The American Stock Dog Registry) instead of the AKC. If you do your own research, we believe you will find that the ASDR is a highly reputable dog registration, if not as well known and widespread as the AKC. But in the Mini Aussie world, ASDR is the gold standard, not the AKC.

While we highly respect the AKC in the pet registry world, we do not believe they have the authority to randomly change an entire dog breed's name. Thus, we have decided that we would follow the Mini Aussie Community to intentionally avoid AKC registration in our breeding program.