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Can pets be successful working dogs?


caraline
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I think you are correct in that everyone defines things their own way.

 

my dogs have no concept of tools

 

but they do understand partnership.

 

 

Your dog has a concept of neither as words - they only have an understanding of your relationship with them. I think this was my point. What's the difference how one describes the relationship so long as the dog is happy and the human is happy?

 

All I am saying is the word has become the argument - and that argument is based upon people's individual understanding and usage of the word. Employees, soldiers, dogs - they are all thought of as "assets" to those who employ them. Tools that do this or that job. That is quite independent of how they are thought of and treated as individuals.

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Is isn't that dogs aren't tools. You're right, they fulfill the definition. The problem is that they are more than tools. No definition of a tool incorporates the scope of the partnership one has with a dog. To call a dog a tool is simply not enough. If we went by definition alone ("something used to carry out a function") then everyone with a job (and many without) would be tools of some kind.
It's not that "tool" to describe any of those things are wrong, they're just not accurate to the context.

And I'm still waiting to hear how a tool evokes your emotion and empathy.

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to me a tool is an inanimate object....like a rake or a tractor

 

a dog is a working animal...not a tool, a live animal that may or maynot be a pet, but an animal that does work on the farm

 

both the tool and working animals do chores/jobs on the farm.

 

but it is in the semantics....

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I'm going to paraphrase something I read today -

 

A dog is not a tool.

A tool is replaceable.

A dog is not.

A tool is disposable.

A dog is not.

A tool doesn't have a heart.

A dog's heart is bigger than any tool you can ever own.

 

Perhaps that's why, no matter how much some one may use, appreciate, take care of, and maybe even love a tool, some people will always be offended when a person considers a dog to be a "tool" or "just a tool".

 

PS - The original quote, using "thing" rather than "tool", is accredited to Elizabeth Parker in the location where I read it.

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