New Addition... "Toy Aussie"

[Tazwell]

Hey guys... I wanted to introduce the newest one in my bunch. She was a foster failure, but I knew her since she was a pup, so... It was just a bit different, ya know?

Anyway, Adrian is a "Toy" Aussie. She's almost a year and a half old, and she's only 11-12lbs. I'm sure she's not just a bred down aussie, but I'm convinced that to get tiny aussies they mix them with other breeds. Any input on that, anybody?

She was purchased from a pet store at about 6 weeks old, And landed at the vet's office the next day with terrible pnuemonia and giardia. Her owners decided they didn't want to deal with it, so they surrendered her to the vet, where the girls took care of her in intensive care for over a month. She was on a ventilator for a long time, I guess, and they almost lost her. Once she got better, one of the girls adopted her... and that lasted about 8 months. She didn't receive any training, including housetraining, so she was a holy terror. Which is how she ended up with me, of course.

She's gotten much better, I mean, she's tolerable now LOL! But Fleetwood ADORES her. That was the deciding factor for me, since he doesn't have any dog friends at our house. Only Cappy, the cat. Anyway, You name the behavior problem, and she had it. But she really is very, very smart, and is a very quick learner. I look forward to training with her.

And she's Double Merle, so she is completely deaf and vision impaired, but that doesn't really make much of a difference with anything. She's the fourth deaf dog that I have fostered, and they always seem easier to train because they can't hear distractions around them

I don't have any fancy photos of her yet, my camera is out of commission. So iPhone photos only.

Adrian

Untitled by TazwellC, on Flickr

Adrian

Untitled by TazwellC, on Flickr

All of the dogs together (Fleetwood seems to be the odd one out in the bunch...)

Untitled by TazwellC, on Flickr

And Fleetwood, because I love him.

Fleetwood in the D by TazwellC, on Flickr

[CharlieDog]

Fleetwood is gorgeous and so is Adrian!

[Zoom]

Oftentimes they'll throw in poorly bred, undersized Shelties and/or Pomeranians, depending how small they're trying to get the resulting dogs to be.

She's cute though

[Keechak]

Instead of using the toy Aussie phrase you could just call her an Aussie mix? I certainly would, don't like to perpetuate misinformation to ignorant people. How big is she at the shoulder? She may just be a small Miniature American Shepherd too.

[Tazwell]

Haha, don't worry Keechack, that's exactly what I do. People ask me what she is, and I say "I was told she was a mini Aussie... I believe she's an Aussie mix." I hate hate hate the trend where people feel the need to ruin a perfectly good breed by trying to make it what it is not. And I hate the word "toy". And teacup. And even mini. So I won't play into that sort of thing.

Of course, "fanciers" of this sort of dog claim that there was no cross breeding to get this "variety", due to the ole "little blue dog" blah blah blah. I don't buy it for a minute.

She does, however behave very much like an Aussie, which is kind of nice because I've always liked the breed. Just now, I can afford to feed one LOL!

[~WelshStump~]

Originally Posted by Tazwell

She does, however behave very much like an Aussie, which is kind of nice because I've always liked the breed. Just now, I can afford to feed one LOL!

lol, I almost have to believe that's the main reason people started trying to breed them smaller! Convenience, I'll admit it's a HECK of a lot easier in SO many ways dealing with Noods, but honestly Jinj in the middle of them is and has been the most expensive.

and...6 WEEKS !? Why don't they have laws everywhere against that?! Ugh, double merle too, poor girl . So glad to see she's found a place where she's finally getting the right attention for her situation though!

[Laurelin]

She is awesome! Thanks for taking in a dog with special needs.

I honestly didn't know you had more dogs than Fleetwood.

[SaraB]

Ahhh! She's so cute!! I adore double merles (of course rescue/foster ones, not like I'm going to go out and support a craptastic breeder by purchasing one). I have a soft spot for the spazzy little "mini" aussie things that have been coming through our training center. One day I'm sure I'll end up with one, mostly because they are spazzy and a lot of the people that are buying them really have no clue the amount of energy those guys have.

[LostAndConfused]

She's beautiful. I have a major soft spot for these pocket size aussies.

I keep tell Hudson that I'd appreciate it if he would stop growing. He is nice and super portable right now!

[Aleron]

Awww she's very cute. The difference between toy and mini is height. She doesn't look small enough to be a toy in these pictures but maybe I'm wrong. I honestly see no reason to call her a mixed breed when you know her breed?

Originally Posted by Tazwell

Haha, don't worry Keechack, that's exactly what I do. People ask me what she is, and I say "I was told she was a mini Aussie... I believe she's an Aussie mix." I hate hate hate the trend where people feel the need to ruin a perfectly good breed by trying to make it what it is not. And I hate the word "toy". And teacup. And even mini. So I won't play into that sort of thing.

AKC is calling them Miniature American Shepherds, so that is technically the proper term now I guess. There's big debate in the breed about it though.

I'm curious what you'd call miniature schnauzers and toy Poodles if you hate using those words in breed names?

The miniature Aussies have been being developed for almost as long as Aussies have been. They are not "new" and they have always been called Toy/Miniature Australian Shepherds (well until AKC accepted them). They do have their own foundation, unique to them but there was a lot of interbreeding with them and Aussies too. They were not "bred down", they started with small dogs which were bred to Aussies. The intention was always to have a breed that was like a small Aussie.

This shows the foundation dogs for Miniature Aussies, early on they were all toy sized: http://www.myspace.com/travistoyauss...over_ViewAlbum

If you click on the pictures, you'll see dates, dogs names and some have sizes I think. One is the first dog she registered in the mid70s as a Toy/Mini Aussie, very cute blue merle

Aussies as a standardized breed aren't all that old either.