A good farm dog could be worth $40,000 over a lifetime of barking and mustering.

The Farm Dog Survey gathered information from 800 herding dog owners around Australia, and was presented to the inaugural Working Dog Conference in Sydney.

Dr Liz Arnott, from the Farm Dog Project at the University of Sydney, says the herding dog is worth five times what the owner has spent on it.

"Over the typical working lifespan of the working dog, they provide their owners with about $40,000 worth of work.

"And when you compare that to the relatively low cost involved in owning these dogs, around $7,700, that's over fivefold return, so it's a valuable efficiency for these farmers."

Only 3 per cent of the owners reported they had any formal qualifications in dog handling.

Carl Carlon, resident of the Working Kelpie Council, says a lack of training is driven by changes on farms.

"It's become totally different. Once upon a time, dogs were constantly working. Now people don't have constant work for dogs.

"The population in the bush is getting older, and people who don't have experience are breaking dogs in."

Bad handling can wreck a good dog, but people often blame bad breeding.

For Kris Kotsopoulos, German Shepherd breeder and police dog trainer in Melbourne, it's both.

"In all my time, talking with every behavioural person around the world over 33 years, I ask 'is it genetics or environment?' But no one can give me the percentage.

"Here's my conclusion - it's 100 per cent genetic input and 100 per cent environmental."

The Inaugural Working Dog Conference at Sydney University has brought together guide dogs, police dogs, rescue and farm dogs for the first time.

Organiser Professor Paul McGreevy says farm dog handlers can learn from guide dog trainers.

"We've discovered right-pawed guide dogs are twice as successful as left-pawed guide dogs.

"The left preference dogs were high risk for distractability .... that's the main reason guide dogs fail graduation."