We met with AKC on December 17, 2014 and have negotiated a change to the rules concerning Australian Shepherd parents of a Miniature Australian Shepherd.

This change does not affect the deadline concerning conversion of an AKC Australian Shepherd to an AKC Miniature American Shepherd. The deadline of December 31, 2014 will be enforced.

This change does not affect the deadline concerning the purposeful breeding between an Australian Shepherd and a Miniature American Shepherd and/or Miniature Australian Shepherd. The deadline of December 31, 2014 will be enforced. This means that any Miniature Australian Shepherd having an Australian Shepherd parent that is whelped on or after January 1, 2015 will not be eligible for registration in AKC as a Miniature American Shepherd.

The negotiated change is:

Any Miniature Australian Shepherd born by December 31, 2014 that has an Australian Shepherd parent and is registered, or eligible to register, with a recognized Miniature Australian Shepherd registry, will be eligible for registration into AKC under the "grandfathering" clause.

What this means is that any Miniature Australian Shepherd born by December 31, 2014, having an Australian Shepherd parent, that is registered with NAMASCUSA, NSDR, MASCA, ASDR, or IMASC, or is eligible to register with any of those registries, will continue to be eligible to register in AKC on or after January 1, 2015 as long as these registries are recognized by MASCUSA. The rule that both parents of the applicant dog must have registration in a recognized registry (which will also include AKC, ASCA, and the Canadian Kennel Club, as additional Australian Shepherd registries) will continue to be enforced. Current MASCUSA rules require that the eligible dog be registered with one of the recognized registries, be eligible to be registered by NAMASCUSA, or have a NAMASCUSA-issued Individual Dog Registration from a registered litter (yellow or blue puppy paper).

The exception to the above would be any Miniature Australian Shepherd that is also registered with AKC as an Australian Shepherd as they are affected by the conversion deadline of December 31, 2014 which will be enforced.

The MASCUSA Board of Directors