They are similar in appearance to the popular English Shepherd and Border Collie breeds, and research has found that Australian Shepherds and Border Collies are closely related to each other; both the Border Collie and Australian Shepherd are slightly more distantly related to other kinds of Collies from the Basque regions of Europe. However, the Border Collie was not used to create the Australian Shepherd. The Australian Shepherd most likely is the descendant of Carea Leonés, Pyrenean Shepherd and Old German Herding dogs that were brought over by shepherds.