Australian Shepherd

Activities
Like other herding breeds, these dogs excel at many dog sports, especially herding, dog agility, frisbee, and flyball. The dog has a stride in which its front and back legs cross over, making for an appearance of "on the edge" speed. The dogs instinctively use a "pounce" position to deal with cattle trying to kick them. They also have strong hips and legs, allowing for fast acceleration and high jumping, sometimes as high as 4 ft (1.3m).

An Australian Shepherd named Pockets is credited as being the oldest dog to earn a title in AKC history, having earned the Rally Novice title at the age of 15 years, 5 weeks.

Miscellaneous
The Australian Shepherd Club of America ASCA was founded in 1957 to promote the breed. The National Stock Dog Registry became its official breed registry, which continued until ASCA took over in 1972.

In 1975, ASCA created a breed standard, describing exactly how an Australian Shepherd should look and be constructed (its conformation to the Standard). It developed more uniformity in the breed and standardized the type.

In the United States, the American Kennel Club is the primary registry for purebred dogs. However, many Aussie breeders felt that AKC put too much emphasis on breed conformity and not enough on performance, so ASCA declined to join the AKC. Those breeders who felt that AKC membership had its advantages split off from ASCA to form their own Australian Shepherd club, the United States Australian Shepherd Association, created their own breed standard, and joined the AKC in 1993. The decision about affiliation with the AKC remains controversial, as it does with many performance breeds.

The Fédération Cynologique Internationale recognized the Australian Shepherd for international competition in 2007, in Group 1 Sheepdogs and Cattle Dogs as breed number 342. An Australian Shepherd Dog from Latvia competed in the Fédération Cynologique Internationale Agility World Championships in Helsinki, Finland in 2008.

In addition to the Miniature Australian Shepherd, the western United States are now seeing the emergence of an even smaller version, referred to as the Toy Australian Shepherd, with adult males tipping the scales at a mere 12 to 15 pounds (5.5 to 7 kg). The genetic consequences of breeding the standard Australian Shepherd down to one-quarter size remain to be seen. Many breeders and owners of Australian Shepherds consider the Mini and Toy to be separate breeds; others consider them to be downsized versions of the same breed. ASCA and AKC considers all such variants to be separate breeds.