He looks all smooth coat BC to me! Please send him to ID, he is my dream BC!!!!
My parent's friends/neighbors imported a little Kelpie bitch quite a few years ago, she looks nothing like that dog. She's a **** good cow dog though! They bred her and their old McNab male and kept two of the pups as replacement cow dogs. All others went to working ranch homes too. They run a little over a hundred head of cows and raise working ranch QH's. Their new male dog is actually a nephew of their old boy who passed. He is a HAM! Anyway I digress.. will shut up now about random dogs I know!
I agree that Steele looks a little Sibe... something about his build from the side really screams Sibe. My neighbor's Akita's and the one's I've met in shelter were much more square in build. With that pretty agouti coloring and that trot he reminds me a LOT of Lily. So pretty! You can also send him to ID, then we can has a very eclectic sled team!