I think the quote Woody posted should be complimented with this quote or it can be totally misunderstood....
Those that see dogs as a means of competition...lose out on having a dog as a "team" member. People that compete in dog sports compete for themselves. No real purpose. No exception. Those that participate in dog sports but do so to have fun with their dog, see the dog in "the pet category"
Personally, my dogs are pets that work.... and so are most working dogs that aren't out for championships.... a working dog can be a pet too, I think people in working circles think poorly of the word "pet", when in reality... that's what most working dogs are, a working dog injected into a home environment as part of the family. I think the folks who kennel their dogs all their lives purely to compete in championship level sport miss out on alot of their dogs personalities and alot of the enjoyable aspects of dog ownership. I think this goes hand in hand with how people view dogs... there's the types of people who work what they got... and there's the type of people who will guilt-free go thru 20 or 30+ dogs until they find the right one, then sell the dog if it turns out not to be "the one" even after the dog is fully trained.
So now that that's covered... is a sport dog worth anything? Or is it all for the handlers ego? Well, honestly, I think for many top level competitors, titling the dog is more important than the dog itself. These folks often don't have the opinion or relationships with dogs that the average working dog enthusiast may have... they have the dog because they want to say "hey look I'm a great trainer n I got this dog to world championships"... that's the ego part of it... then for a dog who is worth something as a competition dog, the monetary aspect comes from stud fees for studding out this amazing dog that won the championships... people paying for seminars offered by the guy who trained the world champion dog, people wanting puppies from the guy who's breeding his championship dog etc etc. I think that when you get to that level, some people (perhaps not all) lose sight of what a dog is all about and start seeing it as an object to make money with and create a reputation, rather than the love a pet owner shows their house dog. Not saying there's anything wrong with it -- but that'll never be me, I don't
want to be detached from my dogs, if I buy a pup from a breeder that offers a bite guarantee on their pups, n it turns out the pup doesn't bite when he is a year old... that dog ain't going anywhere... I may buy another dog, but there's no way I can spend a year with a dog then give it back because the dog doesn't bite. Most hardcore working dog folks wouldn't hesitate to give the dog back n call it a piece of crap. I'm talking about sport dogs here, not police service dogs etc... but dogs who are bred and trained purely to go onto a training field to do what they've been trained to do serving no real purpose other than entertaining people. I don't have a problem with it, but I can see where Andres is coming from when he says sport dogs are worthless in a sense... but as in the quote I also pasted above, he goes on to point out that a working dog that is viewed as a pet has a different type of purpose in life, that is not limited to the training field.
Training methods are also very different among those who view dogs as objects rather than their best friends... suddenly borderline abusive training methods are considered acceptable because "this dog needs this type of training"... alot of trainers end up beating the shit outta dogs in the name of getting the dog to do what they want to do, for sport. I really hate this, I can't stand to watch it, and I have watched it... the end justifies the means type of training... personally I would rather not train a dog, than have to resort to abusive or borderline abusive methods... n if that's the type of training it takes to make a dog truly great at championship levels, then going to championships isn't for me. Perhaps some of you have seen the crazy shit some trainers will do to dogs, most of you haven't I'm sure, but it does go on... and the more detachment you have to a dog, the more abusive the training can get before a conscience kicks in... all to get the high score in championships.
It's funny though, people into dog sports try to convince the general public "the dogs like it, the dogs want to work, they are bred to do this"... but then you look at some of the shit those same trainers will do to a dog to get them to the championships... n it'd disgust the average person, even the average Schutzhund enthusiast. There is a site online somewhere that's been linked to all over other message boards, n it's by a lady reporting what goes on in her police departments training. Stuff about hanging and beating dogs I believe... n how dogs are regularly hung n beaten etc etc etc, I'm sure someone here can post the link. The first time I read that site I said "bullshit! she's a nutjob!"... since then I've heard how cops talk about their departments dogs and seen how some trainers like to train their dogs.... n I totally believe the validity of that ladies statements... because all that stuff does go on, on a regular basis, because of the detachment people have toward their working dogs rather than seeing these dogs as their best friends.
I'm not talking about people on this board (maybe I am? I don't know), but the detachment to a working dog and not seeing them as anything more than disposable cattle makes me feel sorry for dogs who are born into that type of life of training, I don't see the point. I really like motivational training for this reason, and Bob Scott's training club's 100% motivational training methods seem really cool to me, I'd love to see how they work with some of the harder dogs too. To me personally, if a dog doesn't enjoy the training, I wont want to train them, n if I have to resort to abusive training to get the dog to do something I need them to do, then I'm working the wrong dog.
On a slightly seperate note... my pet peeve is the assumption that everything's better in europe... there's as much crap in europe as there is in the US... it makes me feel sick when I go to dog training websites that sell stupid crap like kitchen weighing scales "imported from Germany" to measure out dog food... when I can go to Super Target and grab a Made In Taiwan scale for $3.99 that does the exact same thing. I've lived all over the world and been to over 25 different countries, n on the whole it's the same everywhere... there's many many people in the US who have the "livestock" opinion of dogs, just as there's many people in europe who treat their working dogs like children... but from the US perspective, when we think of europe, we think of the championship dogs and trainers and forget about all the average people that train their dogs just like we do, n we forget about the folks in the US who go to championships and have the same ideas and views as the championship folks in europe. There's good and bad in every country, n there's people with all sorts of mindsets everywhere, you can't say "the dutch are ruthless with their dogs and the americans are sentimental pansies", or "every dog in europe is well trained but dogs in the US aren't trained at all".... because there's plenty of people in europe that have never even thought of training their dog, just as there's many people in the US that do train their dogs.... some better than others, on both continents.