The Australian Shepherd's name is a bit misleading considering it originated in California. The "Aussie"'s ancestor, the Pyrenean Shepherd, was a popular herding dog amongst the Basques, a group of indigenous people from the borderlands between France and Spain. In the early 1800's, as Anglo-Australians were making their way into the interior, many Basques sailed east to Australia to herd sheep there. They bred their shepherds with collies and border collies to improve the breed. Eventually, many of them left for California where Californians mistook their dogs for being Australian (hence the misnomer). The breed was fine-tuned on the West Coast, establishing the breed we know today.