I think you might be happy with something from the
herding group. Border Collie, Australian Shepheard, Australian Cattle Dog, Collie, Corgi (for a smaller version) or German Shepheard. You can ALWAYS find shepheard mixes waiting to be rescued. Aussie Shepheards are GREAT dogs. I took care of two miniature Aussies for a while. VERY trainable and smart as well as loving and friendly. Aussie Cattle dogs are short hair and easy to take care of as well as being great companions. I really like this entire breed group.
The one bad thing about these dogs is that they can be TOO smart.