#but yeah unfortunately borzois are in the same category as dobermans for me

[barksbog]

Do I remember correctly that you were thinking between borzoi and smooth collie or was it someone else? If it was you, any particular reason why you chose collie? Asking bc im myself considering between those two, I have experience with shelties and really like herding dogs even tho they can be worlds most sensitive babies sometimes

I can't remember if i publicly posted about it but i definitely did consider borzois!

herding dogs are great and i'm definitely very biased towards them. i love those weirdos and all their chaos.

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the reason i ended up going for a smooth collie is mostly prey drive. Borzois are proper sight hounds and will run after fast animals and bite to kill if they can reach them. which is what they were bred for and definitely doesn't make them bad dogs!

herding dogs have a modified prey drive that makes them stalk animals around and ideally have strong restraint on lunging and biting.

i know a lot of sight hounds are very chill with cats but i just felt more comfortable going with a herder. He does annoy his tiny older siblings a lot by herding them around the house when he thinks they need to be somewhere else and is a bit rough and clumsy in his play attempts but it's all manageable.

i also live quite rural with a lot of game like hares, deer and pheasants out and about around the house and have neighbours with free roaming ducks, chicken and turkeys. so having a dog with a low prey drive is honestly just a lot more comfortable overall.

that being said tho my trainer has the worlds daintiest little rough collie who has an insane prey and kill drive. so it's not a given they will just try to befriend every outdoor cat they see.

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another point was size. smooth collies (especially males from US lines) can get quite big. Leon certainly is a good sized guy with almost 60cm shoulder height and 24kg!

borzois are A LOT larger.

i have a small car, bed and couch tbh. My mom is also struggling with physical health and already struggles with leon when he's a bit rowdy. i don't think she'd handle a dog that can get almost twice as heavy!

the accidental injury risk of my cats would have also been higher with a larger dog.

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less a direct comparison thing but a big part of why i went with a collie in the end is that they are known to be kinda annoyingly clingy and oh god he is but so am i. having a weird little guy who doesn't get annoyed by it helps my mental health a lot.

i don't have experience with shelties and how they compare but generally you can expect smooth and rough collies to be a bit lower energy and more "stubborn"/independent than border collies if that helps.