The first miniature Australian Shepherds were registered by Valhalla Kennel many years ago. They were small standards who failed to meet the height requirement even though they were the offspring of wonderful standard Aussie bloodlines. Many of us know that in every breed there are certain bloodlines that will throw pups to the smaller scale of the registry standard so this phenomenon was to be expected. Even today, many mini breeders will go back to standard Aussie bloodlines to infuse certain characteristics they want or need in their mini lines.

There have been very specific guidelines set by the Miniature Australian Shepherd clubs called the “breed standard,” which show dogs are expected to meet. This guideline is similar in almost every way to the standard-sized Australian Shepherd, but, naturally, does have a different size criteria. The breed standard that has been set says that dogs should be between 14 and 18 inches tall at the withers. This is a fairly large range, and could mean a 14 inch dog may weigh 20 lbs where an 18 inch one might reach 40 lbs.

Then came the toys - in the same fashion as the minis were discovered first as simply small standards, the toys were then born from small minis. Some of their pups failed to reach mini height, so National Stockdog Registry (same registry for standards and minis) developed a spot for the undersized minis who were then called toys. Naturally, a breed club for toys followed as it had with the minis, and they established a “breed standard” for the show ring which is almost identical to that for the minis and standards.  Some toys are so tiny they never reach the “toy guidelines” for size. So, just as the standard size Aussies many years ago gave us the mini, and the minis gave us the toys....the toys are now giving us a teacup size Aussie.

"Up on the Hill" at Howlin' Hills Kennels we have four sizes of Aussie. We breed larger minis still within the breed standard, up to 18" and weighing 35 to 40 pounds.  Smaller mini pups range in weight from 20 to 30 lbs and stand 14 to 16".  Our toys range from 13 lbs. to 20 lbs. and under 14", and our teacups are under 12 inches and under 13 lbs.

Regardless of the size of our dogs, (minis, toys or teacups) our goal as breeders is to breed as much of the best Australian Shepherd traits available.