Valeska Bela Adoro Birchwood

Breed Characteristics
Borzoi are a sight-hunting breed and their structure and behavior reflects this heritage. They have a strong chase instinct, will hunt small animals including domestic pets and livestock, and are very, very fast. They can be taught to live with small animals such as cats under controlled circumstances, with the best success being through exposure from puppyhood on.  However, they will always be first and foremost a sight-hunting breed, and should not be acquired with the intention of changing their nature any more than you would choose a husband or wife with the thought that you will change them, attempts at which will only make both you and the borzoi unhappy. Instead, consider whether you would enjoy the activities a borzoi would enjoy, such as long off-lead walks in sparsely populated areas, straight racing, oval track racing, or in the few states where it is available, open field coursing.

Borzoi are not: territorial (they will leave any size acreage and travel large distances),  a guarding breed (they will not protect your property from the meter reader or anyone else, though they may protect your person from threat of harm),  a farm dog (they will not stick around and leave the livestock and wildlife unmolested), an ideal dog for roughhousing with rowdy children (they are body sensitive and sound sensitive, and are not comfortable with rough pushing and pulling, sudden movements, and loud noise).

Borzoi are: beautiful to look at and to watch in motion or at rest; quiet (they bark less than most dogs); sensitive (they are body and sound sensitive and quite responsive to the signals they perceive from you, and they are not clumsy in the house), smart (meaning that they figure things out quickly, not that they are slavishly obedient), large ( males at maturity from 85 to 100 pounds, females from 65 to 80 pounds), fast (like you wouldn't believe--with a top sprint speed of just under 40 mph), need a lot of free playing exercise as puppies to develop well (off lead play with another puppy or dog in a large enclosure for several hours per day; not on-lead road work or anything of that regimented nature), and need to be taught using positive methods.

Purchasing Information
Our dogs reflect the hard work and exceptional care given them, as well as our 30 years of experience in the borzoi breed. They are raised in our home with a lot of human contact. Borzoi are a wonderful breed, but like any breed, are not the best fit for everyone. When we sell a puppy, we are looking for a home that will be compatable with both his individual personality and with breed traits, and that will ideally be his lifetime home. Therefore we will ask lots of questions about you, your family and household, children and other pets; your experience with dogs; your house, yard, and schedule; where and how the puppy or dog's day will be spent; what you are hoping for in the dog, and what you would not want in a dog; what the dog will be fed. Don't hesitate to ask us a lot of questions as well. Click on the questionnaire link below, then cut and paste into an email (click on the mailbox icon on the questionnaire page and an email will come up), then fill in your answers and send.
Puppy Purchasing Application

Diet
We feed a homemade diet, along with fresh raw bones for dental health, and we encourage buyers to feed a fresh food diet if possible. If not possible, we encourage the feeding of a premium food such as Canidae, Innova or one of the other foods recommended by Whole Dog Journal, with the addition of some fresh meats and dairy if possible. We regard feeding of fresh raw chewing bones once to twice per week as essential to mental and dental health.
To look at our detailed fresh food diet:
Fresh Food Diet

Home Visit
We feel responsible for the lives we bring into the world, not just in puppyhood, but for their duration. Prospective buyers are screened, and we request home visits prior to sale.  Please keep in mind that  many breeders will request an in-house visit in order to check fencing and verify residence, and we try to accomplish this through a network of Borzoi people nationwide helping each other.  We hope you will be happy to  let someone visit you so you can show off the dog-friendly features of your  place, and  no one is trying to offend you by this; we only want will work best for our puppies and for you, the buyer, and sometimes it isn't possible for us to visit you personally if you live several states away.

Contract and Contact
Because of this lifetime responsibility, our dogs are sold either with a contract or a co-ownership. We require that the dog be returned to us if the owner cannot keep him or her, at any time, for any reason, no matter how old. All companion Borzoi are sold on a spay/neuter contract. Also, because of our sense of responsibility to the lives we bring into the world, we expect to stay in touch and to periodically receive pictures and updates about the dogs from buyers. We are always available and do our very best to answer questions and provide helpful information for the lifetime of the dog.

Contact us for further information at
valeska@turbonet.com