Because this, this and this is what German Shepherds look like.
OK, those are some ugly dogs.
German Shepherd Dog is the full name of the breed. I wasn’t estimating the commonality of the abbreviations at all, since I know that many people cannot spell shepherd or don’t know that all retrievers aren’t Labradors. What I was responding to was the desire to pit those who use the abbreviations, as if doing so is somehow evil.
It seems to me to be a piss poor attribute in anyone to assume the worst. Nobody said anything like “OMG if you knew ANYTHING about dogs you would know what it meant!”, but merely that on a board that claims to be about fighting ignorance the members should be willing to look up something they don’t know if they are curious about it. To wish to pit people who use abbreviations is twattery.
And you dragging me into your response to Scarlett67 further shows you are just interested in having your own way.
There —> your way.
Happy? 
My point about abbreviations was not intended a broad sweep against them, (which in context all its own, reads that way) but was inspired by the disagreement in this thread. Some abbreviations are used regularly - those that are are beneficial to learn. Some don’t fall into regularly used category, others occupy a grey area.
The quote snatched below from the Debate forum, using to make a point. (in bold provided by OP of thread in GD)
To which the OP replies…
The point is that if one is trying to communicate, using abbreviations that others are likely to not understand is counterproductive to making oneself understood.
If your prerogative is to talk down using abbreviations any time you want, you might be doing yourself an overall disservice - it’s not reasonable to expect someone to research abbreviations in order to understand you - people have better things to do with time and energy.
Using abbreviations with attitude “don’t care if someone doesn’t understand, they must be an idiot”, “it only takes a second to look it up, if they don’t want to take the time to do that, fuck em”, is not only arrogant, but detrimental - if one’s goal is to be understood, communicate with others, and not simply come off like a curlcoat.
How long does it take to type out German Shepherd Dog? And is it possible even if unfamiliar with the abbreviation, one’s opinion (concerning thread topic) might still have enough value to be worth contributing?
I think it should be obvious that although unfamiliar with a bonafide AKC certified & approved abbreviation, someone might still know plenty about dog behavior - certainly enough to positively contribute to the topic being discussed in this thread.
In summary, stuff it in your pompous ass, curlcoat.
Once again, the original context of the thread was that the judgment of whether the dog was attacking was being made by impaired people – either a dog-phobic person, who by definition isn’t responding rationally, or the mother of a dog-phobic child, who will possibly/probably err on the side of overestimating the “danger” the dog poses. Such deciders are likely to decide the dog is attacking when it is not. Advising them to use force when their impaired judgment has given them a flawed view of events is unwise.
I agree. If a dog is attacking me, I might jab it in the eyes, whack it with a stick, kick it in the head…
That being said, why are you talking about dealing with attacking dogs? What does that have to with anything? This thread is not about dealing with dogs that are actually attacking; it is about dealing with an irrationally scared kid and overly exuberant dogs that jump up on her.
I pit the 80-pound woman who thinks she’ll be able to control the 140-pound dangerous breed of dog she has “leashed.”
Some people don’t mind if a dog playfully jumps up on them. Most people are mildly annoyed. A small number of people experience utter terror.
It is reasonable to expect dog owners to take steps to avoid annoying people. But if you are one of the small number who really freak out when a dog jumps on you, then you need to take steps to look out for yourself – ie find out in advance if a house has a dog, let a host know about your phobia in advance, etc. One can expect dog owners to be keeping their dogs from jumping on guests as a general practice, but it is not reasonable to expect dog owners to be diving in front of the dog as if they were taking a bullet from the president on the off chance that someone has a phobia.
I wonder what role the Marley phenomenon has had in encouraging people to have “lovable” uncontrolled dogs.
I was browsing at the bookstore this evening and came across a book about Oogy, a rescued pit bull who Changes His Family’s Lives Forever (awwww).
Leafing through the book briefly, I found that his new owners were so concerned about giving him an unconditionally loving environment that they allowed him to sleep with one of their kids the first night (no crate for our poor abused pooch) and permitted him to jump up on and bite at the ankles of company (who, strangely enough, stopped coming to the house). In addition there was massive chewing and destruction of property in the home, something the owners apparently did little to discourage out of fear of destroying the poor beast’s confidence.
Presumably there was some sort of happy ending to all this - but what the hell is the matter with people who allow this crap thinking that it’s in the dog’s best interests? Message to idiots: your dog is not made miserable by training and learning proper behavior. Everyone else is made miserable if you don’t handle your responsibilities as a dog owner.
Heh, I love it. Paragraphs whining about how it makes it soooo hard to understand what is being said in a post when the name of the breed is abbreviated, including declarations that using abbreviations means you have an attitude (huh?), an overly exaggerated example, and then whining some more about being unfamiliar with something that doesn’t even exist, that being “bonafide AKC certified & approved abbreviations”. (Hint - the AKC couldn’t care less how those who have a breed of dog wish to abbreviate the name, or even if they do.)
Hun? You are being the pompous arrogant ass here. You demand that every inch of every post be completely clear to you. That you demand it in posts that require some amount of knowledge on the subject at hand makes you even more ridiculous. With as little as you apparently know about dogs, why are you even posting in here, much less making demands as to how the posts are worded?
Try this. Go back to the post where the breed was abbreviated and let me know what part of that post you didn’t understand. Oh, it was just what breed was being discussed? Did that matter in a post about dogs jumping on visitors? It didn’t did it? Oh, you were just curious about what PWD meant? Go look it up yourself you ass, and stop demanding that the rest of the world spoon feed you everything.
Sheesh.
Heh, well played sir (or ma’am). I would guess that in a discussion about dogs the odds of bringing up human shepherds who happen to be of German descent are fairly slim but I will accept it for the humor value.
As far as abbreviations perhaps we should go the route where on the first usage the full phrase is spelled out with the abbreviation.
e.g. German Shepherd Dog (GSD)
Owner of several German Shepherd dogs, I understood GSD, but don’t share the opinion someone unfamiliar should look it up. It’s not the kind of abbreviation one should necessarily become familiar, it’s unimportant on the everyday scheme of things. Why should anyone give a damn? If your goal is to be understood, it’s you that should give a damn. Get off the high horse and type out the word.
I demand for myself to do my best to make myself clear, not talk down by using kennel club and-the-sunshine-band abbreviations expecting anyone who’s anyone to already know or run off and look up because I am so uber-knowledgeable and important.
Was only trying to relay some basic concepts regarding communication. With your attitude, you’ll likely end up in the corner talking to yourself.
I’m with you. ^^
In my experience, those who use excessive or unnecessary acronyms do so because they imagine it makes themselves sound knowledgeable about the topic. “I can barely follow what he is saying; his knowledge of this topic must be far beyond mine…”
It also gives them an easy out if a layperson happens to question them on something: “Well, if you don’t even know what GSD means, you’re hardly qualified to be having this discussion with me…” Runs away to find someone more easily impressed by acronyms
For some reason, GSD has particularly annoyed me, ever since I initially puzzled over it on a dog training message board (GS… … OK that must be German Shepherd; what the hell is the “D”…?) I vowed from that day forth to never shorten German Shepherd to GSD no matter the audience.
The “D” is for dog. :rolleyes: Because, otherwise, you might hear “German Shepherd” and think… Oh. Must be a cow.
I wonder if all the breeds have “D” at the end. Is a poodle a PD (poodle dog)? That would be a bit silly. If I was part of that group, I think I’d want to keep those acronyms to myself, lest I be made fun of.
I am certainly not the one on the high horse here. The original post with the abbreviations could be clearly understood without knowing what breed was being referenced. (And yes, I did note that you couldn’t be bothered to respond to my questions about whether or not you could understand the original post with the evil abbreviations in it.) Therefore, the only reason to be upset that abbreviations were used was because the reader didn’t like not knowing what something meant, but was too lazy to either ask or Google.
Do you have this same over the top response when someone uses a word you don’t understand? Where in the world do you get “talk down” and “uber-knowledgeable and important” out of someone not wanting to type out a long string of words several times when three letters will do and it won’t make a bit of difference in the message of the post if any reader doesn’t know what PWD means. I’m quite sure that the original poster had no desire to make you feel inferior or whatever your problem here is.
It would be far more likely that you would end up in that corner, if you go about IRL demanding that people speak only in the fashion you dictate. Or perhaps you have never been in a conversation with folks involved in an area you are unfamiliar with? If so, here’s a hint - they tend to use words and yes, abbreviations that you may not have heard before. I do hope that the only place you act like a whiny brat is on the internet.
What can I say to that? You win, curlcoat. Nice talking with you, this has been a very nice conversation and I have learned a lot.
Unlike you I have no interest in “winning”. I think you will find as you go thru life that when you make unreasonable demands, there will be people who will call you on it. Hopefully you will actually learn from those experiences as I rather doubt that you have learned anything from this one.
Nope, disagree. It’s perfectly reasonable to defend myself if I feel I am being attacked – given that I may very well come to harm if I pause to contemplate it while it’s going on. If a dog’s exuberance is likely to be misinterpreted, it’s the dog owner’s responsibility to keep both their dog and their guests out of harm’s way. Even if that means crating the dog when guests come over (Og forbid). Or hell, just never invite anyone over. Problem solved.
This goes hand in hand with the concept that if your dog won’t reliably refrain from jumping up on people (friendly or otherwise), the owner should make it impossible for the dog to do so. A dog that is “merely” exuberant rather than aggressive can hurt someone too – see my previous post. Hand on collar, dog in crate, dog in another closed-off room, whatever.