THE COLORS
Max and Ginger are what is called red-factored. In Australian Shepherd, the black color is dominant. But each dog can carry a red gene, because of their parents and other ancestors.
Both Max and Ginger have Red, Red Merle, Black and Blue Merle parents.
Ginger's sire was a blue merle, her dam was a black tri, and then there are red ancestors all over her pedigree.
Max's dam was red, and his sire was a blue merle, and there are all colors all over his pedigree, too.
Four of the puppies are Black Tri's like Max, two are black with gold and white, like Ginger, and two are red, with gold and white.
Max's side of the litter is very classic Australian Shepherd, while Ginger's side are going to be very flashy, stunning dogs.
ASCA/AKC
The Australian Shepherd is the only livestock working breed developed in America. The dogs came to the West with the Basque sheep herders, from Spain, and then they went to Australia when the sheep industry began there. But it was not until the about the 1950 that people really began working with the dogs to develop the breed, and fix its characteristics.
The Australian Shepherd Club of America was formed in 1957 to do just that: preserve the Standard of Excellence in the Australian Shepherd Dog.
For a long, long time, the American Kennel Club would not recognize the Australian Shepherd dog, and the dogs could not be shown except in a miscellaneous class. That really defeated the purpose of trying to achieve the best of the best of these dogs. And so, the Australian Shepherd Club of America just went its own way, having its own shows, and promoting its own champions.
In fact, for a long time, most ASCA members did not want to have anything to do with AKC, because the perception was that AKC shows were more about "pretty" and "looks" than they were about choosing the dog by the standards which allowed it to achieve a high level of performance.
(I am not giving my opinion here, I am only just telling what I have read, over the years.)
But as the Australian Shepherd became more and more popular, more and more "breeders" wanted to be AKC because they thought it would improve their sales of puppies.
So, (and I don't know the exact details here), in a clandestine movement of some sort, a lot of folks got together, and "presto chango" the Australian Shepherd was now an AKC recognized breed. But only those folks who wanted their dogs registered got in to AKC.
There was quite a clash of opinions over this action. The pro ASCA people thought that the AKC registration would "soften" or "prettify" the dogs, and we would get beautiful, but soft and dumb dogs that wouldn't or couldn't work.
Most Australian Shepherd people consider the ASCA registration to be superior to the AKC, but many people who go looking for puppies want the dogs to have dual registration.
Meanwhile, many of the "breeders" who went to AKC and were breeding their AKC/ASCA dogs started running into problems. In this breed, as with most animals, too much inbreeding brings out the recessive genes, such as blindness or other eye defects, or deafness, or worse.
A merle Aussie should never be bred to another merle. Apparently, the defects are located on the same gene that produces the merling.
So in order to bring in "fresh genes," to keep these recessive defects from showing up, periodically the AKC opens its doors to those ASCA people who would like to have their dog have dual registry.
Personally, I have always considered the ASCA to be the only important registry. However, when Ginger became pregnant, since Max is ASCA/AKC, I inquired about having Ginger accepted into AKC also.
As it turns out, there is currently a new petition being formed, to be presented to the AKC. Ginger is on that list. The AKC will probably agree, because everybody wants that great stock dog blood back in the AKC bloodlines.
When you get your puppy, I will have a copy of my petition letter, and the contact address for you. Once Ginger is accepted into AKC, then her puppies will be accepted also. This will probably happen before the pups are a year old, if not sooner.
But again, the most important registry is the Australian Shepherd Club of America, and both Max and Ginger are solidly registered ASCA dogs.