The Borzoi - A Fact You Might Not Know

'William' the Borzoi

 

The reference photograph I used for William was kindly provided by his owner after I expressed a desire to paint him.

I met William at a show a couple of years ago and was impressed by his sweet nature, his elegance and his dignity so when his owner sent me some photographs of him I put him on my 'to do' list. It's taken me a long time but he's finally finished. The original painting is mixed media on hot press watercolour paper.

Before I draw or paint any animal I like to find out about them. I study the anatomy, coat, features etc but I also look for any interesting facts. This brings me to the fact you might not know about the borzoi.
They rank 75th in Stanley Coren's book The Intelligence of Dogs and fall into the category Lowest Degree of Working/Obedience Intelligence.
The classification is partly based on understanding of new commands and the percentage of times they obey a command first time.
Reading further borzois would appear to be selective learners who become easily bored and can be stubborn if not motivated. I'm not sure that I would class that as unintelligent!

No one will be surprised that the border collie comes out top of the list as the brightest dog.
For anyone interested in the full list this is the article :-The Intelligence of Dogs

Limited edition prints of William are available from my website
 'William' Limited Edition Giclee Print
or you can contact me direct gayle.mason@gmail.com