Send Us Your #FormFollowsFunction Photos!

All dog breeds were bred to perform a specific purpose. We want to see our readers’ dogs doing the work they were bred to do to be shared on The Canine Chronicle!

Thank you Mirjam Senger for sharing this Form Follows Function photo of your Australian Shepherd, “Camden,” (CH Malpaso’s Chaps N’ Spurs), doing what he was bred to do! According to the American Kennel Club, “The Australian Shepherd is descended from a line of Europe’s finest herders. The Aussie’s world tour began in Europe, near the Pyrenees Mountains. It was here, in the borderlands between France and Spain, where the indigenous people known as the Basques built their centuries-old reputation as world-class shepherds. In the early 1800s, Australia’s Anglo ÃomigrÃos began a push into the continent’s vast interior in search of rich pastureland for cattle ranching. Eventually, many Basques, with their faithful shepherd dogs in tow, sailed east to try their luck on the virgin Australian continent, a wide-open paradise for sheep herders. During their long sojourn in Australia, the Basque shepherd refined their dogs with judicious crosses to Australia’s British imports. After building up their flocks, the intrepid Basques left Australia for greener pastures ‘literally’ and set sail to California.

California ranchers admired the Basques’ herding dogs and assumed they were an Australian breed’ thus the misleading name Australian Shepherd. Aussies, further refined and perfected in America, have been an iconic part of cowboy culture ever since. Many are still happily herding in the American West, others earn their feed as rodeo performers, and still others of this exuberantly versatile breed work as therapy dogs, drug detectors, service dogs, and search-and-rescue dogs.”

Photo Credit: Janet Kelly

Was your dog bred to hunt? Bred to herd cattle? Was he bred to rescue or guard? Was he bred to hunt rats? Please share your best Form Follows Function photos with us! We want to see them! Email Gia at Gia.Garofalo@caninechronicle.com with your photos!

Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=339635

Posted by Gia on Sep 24 2025. Filed under Current Articles, Featured, The Buzz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.