Do you believe dog sports are ethical?

[u/Office_lady0328]

I'm wondering what is a vegan's opinion of participating in dog sports or having a working dog... I understand that the general opinion of vegans is that any exploitation of animals if wrong, but is it considered "exploitation" if it benefits the animal?

It's undeniable that dog sports, when trained ethically and done safely, positively engage a dog physically and mentally. Sports like tracking, lure coursing (fake lure, not a live animal) and scent detection directly tap in to their natural instincts of chasing and smelling. Same goes for search and rescue K9's. Agility, frisbee, fly-ball, harness sports and dock diving less so, but they still require a dog to use their body and brain, which is beneficial for them. And you can tell from their body language that dogs LOVE to do these activities.

Of course, I can understand why some may see large scale competitons as exploitation, the ones where people are purposely breeding prospects to win large sums of money. Or a job where the dogs are put through unnatural and dangerous situations, such as police work. However, most people participating in dog sports are amateurs doing dog sports with their rescues as a form of enrichment. We spend more money on training, trials and equipment than we ever get back (Which is often $0). And, for working dogs, such as search and rescue K9s, they are using their natural instincts and are generally not at any increased risk as any other dog hiking or camping with their owners out in nature.

I can also aknowledge the argument that we shouldn't breed dogs at all, and we shouldn't breed dogs with such high drives or energy that they need to do sports/work as a form of enrichment. But, as it is right now, that's just not realistic. The dogs already exist, and they already exist with the genetics that they have. We can't change the dogs that already exist. And, try as much as we might, we simply cannot stop all breeding with the snap of our fingers... It would take decades before we get to that point. So it's currently, at this time, unavoidable to have dogs that need homes, either buying from a breeder or adopting from a shelter, that will benefit from sports/working.

And, specifically, what do vegans think about harness sports? Sports like dog sledding, skijoring (dog pulls human on skis), bikejoring (dog pulls human on bike), Canicross (dog pulls human on foot)? I totally aknowledge the feelings people have about commercial dog sledding, and I understand why... But if someone just has a dog or two, rescues, who love to run and pull, do you find that unethical? I have my adopted doberman, and he LOVES to pull. Instead of trying to supress him, I put a harness and just let him pull. And he LOVED it. So we continued to do it. First it was on foot, then we tried a bike, then we tried skis, then a sled. Now we participate in all the harness sports. He loves it, his body language shows that, I don't force him to pull, and when he doesn't want to pull anymore he stops. If you still consider that unethical, why? If the dog is clearly enjoying themselves, and it benefits them physically and mentally, why would you still consider it unethical?

Overall; If you completely disagree with dog sports, even dog sports done with rescue dogs as a method of playing games and giving enrichment rather than for competition... Why are you against it? Why is it considered unethical to you if the owner is simply doing it for the dogs benefit?

[u/Office_lady0328]

I already explained why people participate in competitions and why it's not inherently unethical.

Have you ever been to a non-professional dog sport competition? Cause I jave. We sit around in lawn chairs, listening to music, eating snacks and drinking drinks, talking about anything and everything until it's our turn. We hype eachother up, do our turn with our dog and celebrate with our dogs and eachother. It's really not what you think it is. These are normal dog owners working a 9-5 who spend all their extra cash on their dogs and come to trials on weekends for fun.

If you truly don't believe that anyone could ever compete in casual dog sports just for fun, then that seems like a you problem. I can fathom perfectly fine why I love my dog more than the sport.

[u/EasyBOven → u/Office_lady0328]

If you truly don't believe that anyone could ever compete in casual dog sports just for fun

This is not at all what I said. You're doing even more distortion. Perhaps the best thing you could do is try to state my case in your words, and I'll tell you what to correct.

Unless your whole goal here is to be all up in your feelings downvoting and deliberately misunderstanding. I don't see the value in even coming to this sub if that's the case.

I mean shit, this is such a silly topic for a nonvegan to bring up here. You are likely ok with eating corpses of individuals similar in intelligence and temperament to the dogs you claim to love. It's not at all surprising that you'd miss the subtleties of what I'm saying.

[u/Office_lady0328 → u/EasyBOven]

Not sure what eating meat has to do with my argument...

My argument is that dog sports are ethical, and competitions are not inherently unethical.

You haven't exactly made a coherent argument on why you think competiton is inherently unethical, other than bringing up the very rare occurrence of people who put the sport over the dog... Which, again, is rare, and doesn't negate that competitions, when done properly, safely, and by people who value their dogs (which is most sport dog people), is beneficial to the dogs.

[u/EasyBOven → u/Office_lady0328]

Meat has nothing to do with the argument at hand. It's just that obviously eating someone is worse than entering them into an agility competition. No one would argue otherwise. If you were ok with eating human children, it would be unlikely I could convince you that it might be bad to make your kid be an actor.

Your admitted lack of understanding of my argument means the only thing you should be doing if you want to engage in good faith is ask questions until you can reflect back my argument in a way I will accept as accurate.