The Shar-Pei Forums-Health Behavior Diet & Rescue Info and Discussion Group

So here I am helping a neighbor with an Akita and I realize that
I am telling her that she has a working breed. A hunter and his instincts
need to be fulfilled. Finding her a job for her dog so that his energy
is better placed while he has down time.

Then I go home and I am dealing with the trio and I am thinking these
three are working dogs. To me anyway. I have always trained them with that
mind set. So why the heck are they classified as non sporting with the AKC? I have no idea.
And Chow Chow for that matter?

So this is my questions to those of you on the board who have been around shar pei
breed much much longer than me. Why are they non sporting? I don't get it.

I see so many similiarities in shar pei with other working/guard breeds like Cane Corso and
Rottweilers and Akita and they are classified as working group.

Maybe there is an overall stereotype of this breed that they are not a working breed. I beg to differ.
Any feedback would help me lay this puzzle in my mind to rest.

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bumping up, good question! my neighbor has an Australian kelpie and that dog is definately a working dog, my pooches are like couch potatoes compared to the kelpie! she used to work 6 hours a day on a Texas ranch, and has not handled her new life of sitting home waiting for her owner to return from work too well

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Well first you would need to research where the titles originated. Working groups were given the title because they normally aided in herding and various other fields.

Non- sporting or non-working group classification were given to breeds who did not "fit" the norm of the working group or sporting group class.

The best place to start is looking at the bottom of this Wikipedia page for sources that will lead you to the study of were classification originated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog

The problem is "we" as a society try to "label" certain breeds. The thing is all dogs have a general ideological or source to how their mentality works. The problem is "we" as humans try to over analyze why a breed acts the way they do, or exhibits certain traits. All dogs no matter what classification have certain instincts that have some sort of hunting trait.

The best articles can be found in the many colleges on the studies and research of dog classification.

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Peaches, Oscar, Pogo, and Luna
RIP Peaches 1-1998 - 3-2011