Royal Basque Shepherd News

BEWARE OF BREEDERS who are posting negative comments about the Royal Basque Shepherd on different websites. There are several reasons why but they hide their motives with bla bla like "Royal Basque members are new to the breed" and other nonsensical comments like "they are doing it for money, etc." Totally UNTRUE because the majority of our members have been breeding Miniatures and Toys as long as the members of the other clubs they are speaking from PLUS the Royal Basque Club is registering dogs FOR FREE unlike the clubs who's members are posting the negative stuff?" Fact is the other clubs fear financial losses because the Royal Basque Club certainly will make no "profits" if they have no fees! Here are the real reasons breeders are opposed to AKC recognition of this breed.

FIRST: Breed clubs will no longer be able to control the club dog shows and adjust breed standards on a whim. Furthermore, some unscrupulous breeders have even condoned the altering of ears thru a method of ear punching prick ears to make them lay over so they can compete in the dog shows vs being disqualified/faulted for the prick ear. None of this would be allowed in AKC sanctioned shows. Perfect example of why the breed must get into AKC as quickly as possible to stop such breeding practices.

SECOND: Breeders could no longer get by with registering pups to the wrong parents because the AKC DNA process would stop that in its tracks. Those breeders would then have to advertise "Designer Dogs" instead of purebreds which simply defines dogs who do not have AKC paperwork often because the parents can not be verified. Puppy mills have so many breeds they often don't even know who a dog is bred to.

THIRD: Some Miniature breeders have selfishly hijacked Mrs. Cordova's breed since she passed away totally ignoring her written wishes that this breed be its "OWN BREED". They have claimed the breed as their own trying to make this a size variation of the Australian Shepherd when that was not what Mrs. Cordova wanted. AKC has already voted down the Miniature Australian Shepherd name and the ONLY way to carry out Mrs. Cordova's wishes (breeder of first officially registered Miniature Australian Shepherd) is to give the same dog a different name and keep it pure thru DNA process with AKC.

FOURTH: Miniature Clubs want to keep the breed in rare breed because they can continue charging whatever registration fees the new board THAT YEAR for their club votes on. For this reason the Royal Basque Shepherd Club is proving their dedication to the breed by registering dogs FOR FREE so the mini clubs can not claim our motive is financial even though they have tried that. Possibly that is their motive so they assume ours to be the same???. Our Board members are paying all expenses from our own pockets UNLIKE the Miniature Australian Shepherd Clubs who charge for registration.

HISTORY OF THE ROYAL BASQUE SHEPHERD

In the beginning of the Australian Shepherd breed there was one registry. All the different sizes (ranged from toy size to large size) were not differentiated at National Stockdog Registry as every dog was simply given a number with an "A" (for Australian Shepherd Breed) in front of the registration number. Why? The breed originally came in all sizes! The cattle ranchers owned many of the first Aussies so they needed the dogs to be larger dogs than actually what was needed by sheep herders. So, the Collie breed was infused and also the Bernese Mountain Dog (per the most well known Australian Shepherd breeder) along the way to bring size up because a large percentage of the original "little bobtail shepherds" as they were often called were actually the size of today's miniature size aussies. Thus being the reason they were referred to in all earliest accountings as "LITTLE". No 70 dog (size of some aussies today) would have been referred to as "LITTLE".

During the late 50s and early 60s a group of horse fanciers who loved the smaller size because they could ride horseback with them realized the original small aussie was disappearing in breeding programs because ranchers were breeding for larger blue dogs. The cattle work simply required larger dogs. This small group of rodeo and horse folks began culling the small dogs out of litters while they could still find them and breeding small to small to preserve that size. By 1960s ASCA (Australian Shepherd Club of America) had organized quite well and they developed the "breed standard" and documented their preferred size which was above 18 inches. During that same period of time an advocate for the smaller size organized her group and documented their preferred size which was under the 18 inches thus naming them Miniature Australian Shepherds. She even approached the registry and asked if her small dogs could get an M (for Miniature Australian Shepherd) before their names vs the A (for Australian Shepherd) even though her dog's parents had "A" numbers. By 1981 the registry granted Mrs. Cordova her wish and the first Miniature was officially registered even though his parents both had A numbers thus were registered as Australian Shepherds and not Miniatures. Cordova Spike
was the first with an M number for Miniature. If you look at Cordova Spike's picture below you will be amazed at how similar he looks to the Smooth Faced Pyrenean Shepherd which is the breed used by the Basque people in their homelands for sheep herding in the mountains of France and Spain. Obviously by the looks of Cordova Spike the Smooth Faced Pyrenean Shepherd (not the rough faced) was heavy in this new American breed. Came from Australia?? Many do not even believe the MAJORITY of Basque sheep herders passed thru Australia prior to bringing their Smooth Faced Pyrenean Shepherd dogs and variations of such to the United States believing instead that most migrated up through Mexico since this American breed was isolated to the Western United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Possibly SOME did come through Australia which is how the name was developed but simply not all. Regardless..... we know that the breed was bred to Collies to bring size up which is why responsible breeders like me eye cerf for "Collie Eye Disease" to this day prior to breeding any dog here at City Slickers Ranch.

In the early 1990s a group of Australian Shepherd fanciers decided it was time to branch on into the AKC registry even though many breeders preferred to remain with Australian Shepherd Club of America AND National Stockdog Registry where minis and toys remain today PLUS some of the full size aussies also. The fight to join AKC was bitter among some breeders who believed at that time that AKC ruins the working dogs by setting them up as conformation dogs only. Others didn't care about that because they were so tired of a club being in charge of all dog shows allowing club politics to get out of hand. Regardless, a new Australian Shepherd Club organized and took the breed into AKC without the original Australian Shepherd Club's blessings at first. At that time dogs with National Stockdog Registrations and ASCA registrations joined the AKC band wagon and the books were closed on the breed in 1993 by AKC. Actually, some very small aussies entered AKC at that time (minis and toy sizes) due to the fact they all held NSDR registration papers just as the large dogs did. Unfortunately it didn't do those miniature or toy breeders much good to register their dogs with AKC because their dogs could not win in shows where the breed standard for the judges to judge from started at a SUGGESTED height of 18 inches or above. Therefore, those dogs have maintained their NSDR papers (dual registered as AKC Australian Shepherds and Mini/toy Aussies thru NSDR) so they could be shown on the rare breed circuit along side dogs who only had NSDR paperwork or registration paperwork from one of the two Miniature Australian Shepherd Clubs. Well......just as what happened back in the 1990s is now happening to the smaller aussies of today. Club politics with no AKC control of the breed is causing chaos within this breed. So, breeders have approached AKC about bringing in the smaller sizes who did not go in during the 1990 opportunity due to the gene pool size at that time. AKC has ruled/voted on this and decided they will no longer allow "MINIATURES" of any breed for different reasons. Some Miniature Australian Shepherd breeders just refuse to accept this and prefer to remain in rare breed so they can maintain their name where others of us believe the purity of the breed is in deep trouble without the assistance of AKC since they require DNA on the studs. The clubs have not required DNA and we firmly believe many breeders are breeding dogs that do not even have correct registration paperwork. However, since there is no DNA process in place it will continue without the assistance of AKC.

So here we are now at the doorsteps of AKC with a breed who has many years of dog show records where they have been shown as Miniature Australian Shepherds in rare breed but AKC just refuses to accept them under that name. Remember, AKC no longer allows the "miniaturization" of a breed! This means the name must be changed in order to preserve this breed or unscrupulous breeders will continue registering pups under the names of dogs who are not even their parents. Those breeders are totally opposed to AKC because once AKC begins DNA work they will then have to turn their kennels into "Designer Dog" kennels as many puppy mills call dogs when they are not sure who their dogs bred to since they have so many breeds running around. Once with AKC the studs WILL be DNA'd if they are used several times. So, what will they be called?? For now they are "Royal Basque Shepherds" unless the membership votes in a different name prior to acceptance into AKC. In choosing the name the club board members decided to give credit to those who first came here with this breed.....the "Basque People" and since these dogs have such a proud attitude and regal nature they will be referred to as Royal Basque Shepherds. If you go to the thesaurus and look up Royal these are all of the words given that mean the same.......regal, imperial, majestic, stately, noble, magnificent, Those of us in love with this breed have not found better words yet to describe this breed so they are being referred to as ROYAL Basque Shepherds.

ADDITIONAL BRIEF HISTORY: During the AKC discussions a wonderful Australian Shepherd breeder and member of ASCA brought to our attention that the lady who registered the first official Miniature Aussie in 1981 had documented in a letter to the editor in the NSDR newsletter her desires for this breed. Mrs. Cordova clearly stated she wanted the Miniature Australian Shepherd to be its OWN breed much like the Miniature Schnauzer is. Well, the fact is that the Miniature Schnauzer is NOT a "size variation" of the Giant Schnauzer but a breed of its own. Therefore, Mrs. Cordova was clear that her plans for the mini was not for it to be a "size variation" of the larger dog but was deserving of being its OWN breed and the members of Royal Basque Shepherd Club plan on carrying out her dream.

Many of us believe just as Mrs. Cordova did which is that neither the large aussie or our smaller aussies are "size variations" of the other but simply that ALL sizes existed together at about the same time during the early 1900s with different breeders culling out the sizes they preferred. Therefore, I agree with AKC in that it would be a lie to even make the Miniature a "size variation" of the Australian Shepherd because it is not. Some even believe the smaller ones were actually here first. Regardless....during that early culling process in the early 1900s different looks were collected because the smaller sizes certainly would have no Bernese Mountain Dog in their breeding and probably less Collie so consequently often maintaining the look of the original dogs the Basque men brought over which was the smaller Smooth Faced Pyrenean Shepherd. The Pyrenean Shepherd comes in rough faced and smooth faced which look totally different from one another. The original Miniature named "Cordova Spike" in 1981 had miraculously maintained the look of the "Smooth Faced Pyrenean Shepherd" thru the years telling us that Mrs. Cordova never meant for the her breed...the Miniature to look exactly like the dogs who had strong Collie lines plus Bernese Mountain Dog lines but instead she preferred the original look of those original "little blue bobtailed dogs" which came from Pyrenean Shepherd bloodlines. Therefore, the only way to preserve this breed from the unscrupulous breeders is to get into AKC as quickly as possible so DNA work may begin on this breed just as it did on the large Australian Shepherd in 1993 when they entered AKC against the wishes of many breeders. Our fight will be the same!!!! I hope the Australian Shepherd breeders will assist us and give us their blessings as we travel the same road those breeders once traveled in our quest for AKC recognition. Mrs. Cordova passed away before she accomplished separate breed status for the Miniature Australian Shepherd but the Royal Basque Shepherd Club WILL carry out her dream for this breed to be its "own breed" The name must change due to the political environment/rules/regulations/ etc but the studs will be the same and many will be descendents of Cordova Spike.

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