New Addition... "Toy Aussie"

Tazwell

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#1
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 :D

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
 

Zoom

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#3
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

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#4
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

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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!
 
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#6
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 :mad:!? 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

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#7
She is awesome! Thanks for taking in a dog with special needs.

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

SaraB

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#8
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.
 
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#9
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

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#10
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?

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/travistoyaus...488#mssrc=SitesPhotos_SP_AlbumCover_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.
 

Tazwell

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#12
I hate seeing it in the context. Lets breed dogs as SMALL as we can possibly get them, knock up the price as high as we can get it, the health of the dog be darned. Of course there are exceptions as there is to everything, but somebody ran out and paid big money for a puppy mill dog that was sick, deaf, blind, and they didn't even know it. Because the label probably said "toy". Aww, how cute.

I don't even know if that's what they bought her as. But regardless, this is where most of the toy and teacup hype gets us. I apologize for my strong feelings, because I am we'll aware that there are fantastic breed people out there, but that's not what I see most of the time.
 

AdrianneIsabel

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#13
Cute pup! Thanks for taking her in. :)

I agree with Aleron. We have a toy Aussie who was bred from minis and just substandard in height. It's in our calm and controlled class and needs it... Badly. lol
 

YodelDogs

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#15
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.

If you can find out the name of the pet store you can report them. They are breaking the law for selling puppies under 8 weeks of age and if the state has a lemon law they may be breaking that law also. If enough people report pet stores breaking laws then they will go out of business or at least stop selling puppies.
 

Aleron

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#16
I hate seeing it in the context. Lets breed dogs as SMALL as we can possibly get them, knock up the price as high as we can get it, the health of the dog be darned. Of course there are exceptions as there is to everything, but somebody ran out and paid big money for a puppy mill dog that was sick, deaf, blind, and they didn't even know it. Because the label probably said "toy". Aww, how cute.
I'm not sure how that's any different from any other poorly bred dog though? I see tons of Aussies who are from irresponsible breeders. I have seen whole litters of double merle Aussie puppies for sale at the flea market. It's sad and it's unfortunate for the dogs but they aren't mixes.

As for size, the entire Toy group is selectively bred for small size. PyrSheps are a foundation breed for Aussies and their size range is within that of Toy/Mini Aussies. There is nothing harmful about the size of Mini Aussies. There are some Aussies with no Toy/Mini lines in them, that are mini sized because that size range exists in the breed. The foundation for the Toy/Mini Aussies were toy sized dogs, that were bred to the smaller but still normal sized Aussies. If anything, the breed's size has increased from that of the foundation dogs.
 

Sekah

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#17
I think of dogs like this when I hear toy:



I think it's pretty safe to say that that's a mini Aussie x Chi, Pom or Pap pup. (Probably one of the best looking ones I've seen too...)

I'm sure I'm wrong, but up to this point I've considered all small Aussies minis and all clearly mixed ones mutts- err, toys. I'm not a huge fan of intentionally breeding Aussies down in size since I feel that too often size takes precedence over temperament with breeders, so I fail to see the importance of further distinguishing "minis" and whatever is apparently smaller. To be hyper focused on size to the extent that you're calling your *working* dogs "toys" is to lose credence as a quality breeder.

However, the quality of the breeder of this MM Aussie isn't in question... :)

Tazwell, congrats on your new pup!
 

Tazwell

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YodelDogs, they were busted last year and the owner shut down, but the pet store got to remain open with a different guy who is not currently selling puppies.

Aleron, I understand, I do. I'm not disagreeing with you. But there are no reg. papers. There are no breeder papers. There are no pet store papers. The first owner never even had on paper what she was, nor did they even seem to know. So the chances of her being a puppy mill mix? Likely.

I don't bash anybody's breed, or varieties. Breeding practices? Maybe. But I will question my Dog's heritage. Without a moment of doubt. There's no questioning that she did not come from a respectable breeding practice, that's for sure. I do apologize however if I offended anybody!

I can't wait to get some decent photos of her, she really is cute. She's one of those dogs that everybody asks about. Her legs and feet are reminiscent of a small breed, though, exactly like our (poorly bred/shelter dog) pom's were.
 

Toller_08

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#19
Adrian is very cute, regardless of what she's called or where she came from. I'm sure she's very happy to have ended up in your home!

And I have to say, that last picture of Fleetwood is really, really nice. I love it!
 

Aleron

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#20
I think of dogs like this when I hear toy:


I think it's pretty safe to say that that's a mini Aussie x Chi, Pom or Pap pup. (Probably one of the best looking ones I've seen too...)
Did you see the pictures of the foundation dogs for Mini Aussies? That dog looks a lot like some of them. They weren't bred down from Aussies, the foundation dogs were small and...not Aussies.

It doesn't really matter to me one way or another, it's not my breed. I just hate that there is so much misinformation on the Mini Aussies and feel bad for people who have them constantly being told their dogs are mixes or "not a real breed".
 

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