FAQ

Miniature American Shepherds are active and require moderate amounts of physical activity. For an adult dog, at least 30 min – 2 hours/Day. Most Miniature American Shepherds enjoy daily walks, jogs and outings with their owners. They can be excellent herding dogs and do great on farms, but can easily adjust to city life provided adequate physical and mental activity. They benefit greatly and shine in performance activities such as agility, obedience, scent work, tracking, and others.

The reason why there are so many similarities (physically and also in character and intelligence) between these two breeds is not a coincidence. Miniature American Shepherds are directly descendents from Australian Shepherds and still often called “Mini-Aussies”.  Miniature American Shepherds, or MAS for short, started developing in California in the late 1960’s and the breed was officialized with AKC in 2015. Today, Miniature American Shepherd is an established breed with dogs across the US and also internationally. Their smaller size, intelligence and loyalty make them a very versatile herding dog greatly adjusted for city or farm life.

Yes! Miniature American shepherds can have eyes in all coat colors. One or both eyes can be amber, brown, hazel, blue and can include marbling and flecks.

Being highly intelligent and willing to please, Miniature American Shepherds are exceedingly trainable and it is recommended at least basic obedience to ensure a well-adjusted and well-mannered companion. Early Socialization and basic skills training will be started at our kennel even before your puppy goes home but training success will depend on continuation and consistency on obedience skills for a few months after your Puppy goes home. High obedience skills: advanced obedience, therapy/ service dog training  and other performance activities are also encouraged  and will likely require a longer time commitment allocated to obedience training.

There are 4 Breed Standard Colors for Miniature American Shepherd and depending on the combination of parents, all colors can happen in the same litter. 

– Black: Main color is solid black. Black-Bi with white marks or Black-tri with white and copper marks

-Red: Deep mahogany to brownish-red color as the main color. Red-bi has added white marks and Red-Tri: with white and copper points. 

-Blue Merle: includes a combination of different color tones within the same pigment of black with  irregular blotches, marbling and fleck patches of color over gray or powder blue background. Can also have white and tan/ copper marks. 

-Red Merle: combination of patches of red on a cream background. It can also have white with Tan and copper marks.

Being highly intelligent and willing to please, Miniature American Shepherds are exceedingly trainable and it is recommended at least basic obedience to ensure a well-adjusted and well-mannered companion. Early Socialization and basic skills training will be started at our kennel even before your puppy goes home but training success will depend on continuation and consistency on obedience skills for a few months after your Puppy goes home. High obedience skills: advanced obedience, therapy/ service dog training  and other performance activities are also encouraged  and will likely require a longer time commitment allocated to obedience training.

Miniature American Shepherds have a double coat and shed heavily twice a year. During the shedding season, it is recommended to brush daily. There is minimal need to trim the coat (only around  the paws. Show dogs sometimes have fur around the ear and below bob tail trimmed). If your dog lives indoors, a bath will be needed ranging from weekly to once a month depending how much outdoors activity and tolerance you have.  Between shedding season, a weekly brushing with a slicker brush or a metal comb is recommended.

We take payment through cash, Zelle, Venmo, or credit card. We only accept checks for deposits only.

Delivery is available for an additional charge. We charge $150 to go to Sacramento and $300 to go to San Francisco.

Puppies needing shipping can be shipped via in-cabin flight. The flight can be you, the buyer coming or using a Flight Nanny Service. We’ll meet you at Reno/Tahoe (RNO), Sacramento International Airport (SMF), or San Francisco International Airport (SFO). I can help you arrange this. 

Ground shipping on puppies and additional private flight delivery is available on a casa-by-case basis.

Pricing to ship a dog will depend on the method, required vet health checks and containers. You’ll know all pricing prior to shipment. Payment in full is required before shipping.

We are more than happy to space out payments to your schedule, however, we require all puppies to be paid in full prior to pick up.

We do highly encourage you to be flexible with your color selection because this provides us with more opportunity to match you with the correct puppy personality and activity level that the puppy will require based on your lifestyle.

We do not offer automatic breeding rights. If you are interested in owning a highest-quality  show/ breed puppy prospect, please reach out to Cristine for additional information. We will consider your request on a case-by-case basis.

For us, breeding is always an intentional  and continual effort to improve the quality of the parents and the breed. Every EverSummer Minis litters are carefully planned taking into account structure, genetics, pedigree, temperament and more.

Breeding dogs typically earn AKC Titles in their first years of life.  We have high standards of health and our dogs undergo strict clearance checks for eyes, hips and elbows in addition to genetic testing

All puppies are microchipped using AKC Reunite International (ISO) Microchip. These microchips include prepaid registration. This means we’ll register the puppy to you when you pick the pup up.

We do add EverSummer Minis as the alternate on the microchip, this is merely so we can help you get the dog should the dog escape the pet sitter while you’re out of town.

We vaccinate all of our puppies with the 5-way initial puppy vaccine. There is a high probability the dog will not gain full immunity from this first vaccine, due to the mother’s immunity still being strong in the dog. This is why it is important to follow up on the additional vaccinations in the puppy series.

We understand that sometimes life happens. For this reason, we’ll take any of our dogs back at any time, in any condition, no questions asked.

We will ask questions regarding the dog and the dog’s needs, but we will not ask about your personal situation. We don’t believe any of our dogs should ever end up in a shelter, please contact us if you are having issues.

You are not required to spay or neuter a dog on a limited registration, however you will be unable to register any progeny (offspring) from the dog with AKC without a Full Registration.

The reason we do this is because we want you to make the decision to spay or neuter your dog based on what is best for your dog in your given situation. 

Having that said, I do feel that if you can keep a male dog intact (meaning you are able to prevent him from running off and wanting to breed every girl in the neighborhood) then I would keep him intact. As for the females, I don’t recommend keeping them intact forever if you aren’t planning on breeding. 

Unlike humans who have a menstrual cycle every month and shed the uterine lining, dogs only shed their lining when they have a litter. Because of this, every heat cycle that a bitch endures and doesn’t get bred will stack in her uterus. If she were to get bred for the first time as a 4-year-old, she would potentially have 5-6 linings stacked in her uterus. The linings make it difficult for the fertilized eggs to attach and the cervix loses its elasticity if it goes unused. What this means is that there is a high potential for puppies to be born malnourished and quite often results in a cesarean. This is quite expensive and REALLY expensive if it’s an oops litter and the puppies won’t help recover any costs. Worst of all it puts the mama dog at severe risk. 

Having that said, I highly recommend waiting to spay a bitch until she is over 1 year of age. In fact, that is in my contract, that spay before one year of age will void your health guarantee. The reason is that the hormones lost in a spay are very important in growing healthy bones and joints and so if you spay early you are depriving the dog of its needed healthy growth hormones. 

There are a few vets out there who will do a spay, but leave the ovaries, only taking the uterus, this is difficult in dogs because the ovaries are nearly inside the uterus and so it’s a procedure many vets are not comfortable with.

A 3-Generation Pedigree with the AKC embossed emblem, is available for purchase, you’ll do this when you complete your registration.

All tails are docked and dewclaws are removed by us, the breeder. We do this for the safety and health of the dogs and it is not optional. The puppies are young when we do these things, so young that we cannot evaluate personalities prior to tail docking and dewclaw removal.

Yes! One of our main breeding goals in addition to having healthy puppies is to foster Therapy Dog work.

It takes a long commitment and discipline to undergo therapy work training and certification, but it is also a very rewarding lifestyle.  Since having the correct temperament is a priority when it comes to therapy, our dogs are not only structurally sound but also excelling docile.

While we can’t guarantee any outcomes that require training, we breed therapy temperament in mind. If correctly trained, they can become great therapy dogs, and excellent companions with children and older adults.

Yes, you get to pick the name, however all dogs bred by Eversummer Minis will have the prefix “EverSummer ” before your given name. 

Please understand that  for registration purposes we will need a unique name and therefore you may need to add an adjective or a last name to your dog’s registered name if you pick one of the more popular names. Your Dog call name and Registration name does not need to be the same. We are able to help you with this if you like.

We do not offer any training at this time, however we can recommend trainers in your area.

No, we do not offer Boarding services, but we can provide local recommendations if needed.

A show puppy is bred and raised to meet specific breed standards for conformation competitions. Dogs or bitches competing in conformation must remain intact (not spayed or neutered) while active competing.

Minor cosmetic issues can disqualify a dog from competition, such as exceeding 17 inches in height for females or 18 inches for males in the Miniature American Shepherd breed. These issues typically do not impact daily life at home.

Showing dogs can be a lot of fun but also comes with significant financial commitments such as travel, grooming, show fees, and professional handler costs, etc. Keeping an intact pet requires heightened vigilance and planning, which many pet owners prefer to avoid.

If you’re considering purchasing a show-quality puppy as a pet, be prepared for the associated costs and keep in mind that we cannot guarantee their final adult size.

For more information on show puppies, please contact Cristine.