Sport versus Work - Page 9

Working dogs make excellent pets as long as potential owners realize that these dogs must be given 'work' to do. Dogs that are not to be used for their original purpose must be trained from a young age and are best suited to active persons and families. Obedience training, dog sports, informal or novelty shows, and trial work are all excellent channels for these breeds' energy. At the very least they must have daily walks or other exercise at an appropriate level for the breed, given toys, played with, and provided with human company.

From the Wikipedia site you linked...

Doesn´t seem to be that easy.

@Joan.

I still maintain that the difference between the two is; one serves humanity the other serves human ego.

Joan you are right, but thats a reflection on human morality.

From a dogs perspective it is all the same, no matter to whatever ethical standard a dog serves it is still a working dog.

True, Allen. But the op asked for "definitions". We can only give 'definition from human perspective'....afterall , we are the one who determines what the dogs are trained for. Also, morality has nothing to do with what the difference is between sport and work.
The op did not ask for a dog's perspective, unless I misunderstood and she is asking for how a dog defines work and sport...in which case that's a rufff question.

Really depends on the difficulty of work/sport and what is available to the handler.

Therapy dog...doesn't do much most times. Just a well balanced/trained dog that doesn't really have a specific job or duty.

IPO dog...has to do a lot of different things, trained commands, level of knowledge is much higher.

Most call any dog above a "pet" a working dog. A true working dog...hard to have and has a lot to do with the handler's chosen line of work and opportunities within that field to work with a dog. By those standards, we would have very few "working dogs."

On top of all that, anything you do outside of sitting on your couch with your dog...is work to the dog. So any training, trialing, or whatever else, is work in the dogs mind so they are working dogs.