Types of Dog owners.

[Ozone]

I would be in Bow Walker catagory. I take my dog to work, but I do the work. I may hunt with my dog, but just as a companion or hunting partner. To me dogs are family. I also prefer labs, but like most all dogs. The same cant be said about people.

[Kayte]

The worker:
This owner puts a huge amount into the dog. Hunters, trials, agility Etc.
These people put in research, training time and vet time. They have more invested into the dog. Dogs are more then "Just dogs"

The rescuer:
Some one who wants a pet and wants to help dogs. Loves the dogs but doesnt always see the reason for a purebreed. Dogs are not Just dogs, but also arent tools.

dogs don't have to be pure bred to compete, achieve titles, etc.
many of the "dog people" i hang around with have dogs with more letters after their names than your average doctor... and those dogs were somebody elses' garbage. heck, just recently a good friend of mine and her dog won agility Silver Award of Merit and Expert Silver Standard titles. she's the first Am Staff in Canada to achieve this title. that dog had her ears cut off (not a vet crop), was overbred and thrown away like trash before my friend got her out of the shelter.

i have put a massive ammount of work/time/money into my dog. she's treated like family, but she's still a dog. due to her poor conformation, we don't compete in anything, but i'm damned if i'm going to let her become some fat couch potato that's good for nothing! she's 6 years old now, and we're still doing classes continuously. she loves to learn. we just started tracking this year, and i hope to get some K9 nosework started up here in Canada (it's a big sport down in the US).

guess i've got a foot in each camp, if i had that many feet.

[newhunterette]

I think I fall into all the above categories: I have a Chihuahua, he is my pet, part of the family, purchased specifically because of his breed, his size and for me to have as my own, he is my baby (my kids are more independent so I felt a need to fill the void. Then I also have the worker, my black lab, she was purchased for hunting, to be trained (it hasn't been a perfct relationship but we love her even with her slight abnormalities) and then the rescue, we have our newest rescue aquisition, my blue heeler, she is a gem and has fit into our family as a new pet. 90% of the animals we have or have had are rescue animals and usually suffering from some sort of condition. The main focus we have in our family is all our animals from the gold fish to the dogs are family members and when we lose one of them it is heartbreaking.

[835]

dogs don't have to be pure bred to compete, achieve titles, etc.
many of the "dog people" i hang around with have dogs with more letters after their names than your average doctor... and those dogs were somebody elses' garbage. heck, just recently a good friend of mine and her dog won agility Silver Award of Merit and Expert Silver Standard titles. she's the first Am Staff in Canada to achieve this title. that dog had her ears cut off (not a vet crop), was overbred and thrown away like trash before my friend got her out of the shelter.

i have put a massive ammount of work/time/money into my dog. she's treated like family, but she's still a dog. due to her poor conformation, we don't compete in anything, but i'm damned if i'm going to let her become some fat couch potato that's good for nothing! she's 6 years old now, and we're still doing classes continuously. she loves to learn. we just started tracking this year, and i hope to get some K9 nosework started up here in Canada (it's a big sport down in the US).

guess i've got a foot in each camp, if i had that many feet.

This is why i put Agility into Catagory 2, sorry if i missed some other names for it but i think your friend is Cat 3/2
rescuer with work. more to 3 then 2 because if she was all cat 2 she would have got a PB border collie. Sorry i know nothing about agility, As i have said this though of mine is VERY general. But i am sure there are people in agility that would look down on the Bit bull in agility!

[Bow Walker]

I was about to put that exact catagory in there BUT!
I would fall into it for sure my dog is family in that way but what i thought seporated me was...

I picked a lab to work him, i checked his health etc. So i put myself into the Worker catagory. I activly hunt him for upland and water fowel.

This is obviously bigger then what catagories i posted, I just think fundamentally we fall into the three at a base level. Though we can share opinions. I think you are a rescuer? so you cant check health. and dont care for the Hunt trial side of a dog.But you may Baby it the same as me.

Ya, I do fall into the Rescuer category - both my dogs are "rescued" dogs, one of them was treated so horribly that I just wish I knew who the perp was...

I do fault myself for not training as thoroughly as I should because I don't discipline well at all.

[Kayte]

if she was all cat 2 she would have got a PB border collie.

where's the challenge in that tho?

[835]

I think a border collie is enough of a challenge!!!!!

[Kayte]

true. i couldn't live with a border collie unless i could buy him a really expensive toy... like a sheep farm.

[MooseWhacker]

There are many types of dog owners thats why there are many breeds and they should be properly matched with the right owners wheather pure bred or not.

[Kayte]

There are many types of dog owners thats why there are many breeds and they should be properly matched with the right owners wheather pure bred or not.

amen to that!