I confess.. I saw 61 pages of posts and decided I didn't have time to go thru them, but did want to respond. My apologies if I'm repeating someones post. "Only Working Dogs are Real Dogs', I believe was the subject. I believe that all dogs are working dogs, as long as they're capable of functioning in the capacity for which they were bred. My Doberman pup is becoming an excellent watch dog, obedience dog and companion. My min. poodle is also an excellent watch dog, retriever and companion animal. Both doing what they were bred to do. Ancient breeds like the Peke, Saluki or Pharoah hound (very, very different dogs) contributed greatly to our modern day domestic dogs. Today, it's rare to have dogs performing the functions they were bred to do. I.e. bullbating being illegal or breeds once used as "war dogs" being used as service dogs now, or northern breeds like the Husky being used for sport now, like sledding, weight pull, verses a real mode of transportation. There are legitimate issues with breeders altering some of these dogs, over many years, to a point of near deformity or serious health issues for some. I'm more concerned with that, than the issue of wrether my dobie is a better working dog than my min. poodle. While a lot of us use our dogs for "sport", very few of us truly have "working dogs" ( now a days that being service dogs, guide dogs, search and rescue, bomb dogs, ect.) I believe that all of our dogs are "real dogs" though, when acting as companions, alerting us to danger, supplying us with affection and loyalty, regardless of breed or size. That's a pretty big job.
