Do You Capitalize German Shepherd In A Sentence

Are Dog Breeds Capitalized

When writing of dog breeds should they be capitalized? For example:

The best breed for hunting rabbits is the beagle.

Should the word “beagle” be capitalized?

Typically, breeds are not capitalized in general-interest publications, like popular magazines and books and newspapers . Common editorial practice follows the guidance of dictionaries like Merriam-Webster’s and American Heritage. If you look up beagle or poodle in either of these sources, you will see that it is lower case. German shepherds, Portuguese water dogs, Newfoundland hounds, Dalmatians, and others that include a proper term do take capitals on those terms.

However, if you go to a site like the American Kennel Club’s , generally you’ll see capitals used for all breeds, including Beagle and Poodle. This is a perfectly reasonable editorial decision, given that breeds and breeding are their entire focus.

In short, capitalization is an editorial choice.

How Do I Know If My German Shepherd Is Happy

Here are some of the most common German Shepherd signs of affection:

Try Not To Commit A Real Dog Of An Error

I’M A SUCKER for a dog in the news- room. When one visits, I come as if called.

I love to schmooze with Annie, Sydney, Nocci, Emma, Bailey, Bella or Eddie.

Knowing my weakness, a colleague last Christmas gave me a page-a-day calendar of dogs.

Each page features a dog photo and some text. From January through October, I found little to object to in the captions. But on Wednesday, Nov. 9, this sentence appeared under a picture of a dog identified as a Stabyhoun, a breed I’d never heard of:

“This versatile, medium-size hunting dog hales from Friesland, a province in the north Netherlands, where his name translates as the ‘stand by me dog.'”

The page for Monday, Nov. 28, featured a Doberman named Shorty playing with a St. Bernard named Bowser.

The caption read: “Shorty used to be cautious and reserved like other Doberman Pinchers. But then she met Bowser, and it was puppy love at first sight.”

I’ve been pinched by a dog–specifically by its teeth–and I don’t recommend it.

For the record, the Stabyhoun “hails” from the Netherlands. The Doberman is a Doberman “pinscher.”

Dog breed names can challenge writers and copy editors.

If you go online and look at the American Kennel Club website or websites devoted to specific breeds, you might notice Lots of Capital Letters. The AKC capitalizes breed names regardless of whether they’re proper nouns or common nouns.

Here are some examples courtesy of Webster’s New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition:

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Should Dog Breeds Be Capitalized

Suppose you are writing about a type of dog or even to your favorite dog and need to mention a type or breed. Should the dog breed be capitalized?

This is a common question in American English for a couple of reasons. First, because dogs are a big part of our lives, they come up fairly frequently in writing. And second, even if you understand the rules, they seem to be applied inconsistently.

With that in mind, lets see if we can get to the bottom of the issue.

Mixing Proper And Common Nouns Of Animals

Similarly, “Garfield the cat” is capitalized as such because “Garfield” is a proper noun, and “cat” is a common noun. However, “Felix the Cat” is capitalized as such because “Felix the Cat” is the character’s actual name. Explore some other examples:

• Moo Cow
• Moo the cow
• Duke the Dog
• Duke the dog
• Bunny the rabbit
• Bunny Rabbit

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Responses To Writing About Dogs

• Dale A. Woodon July 03, 2016 1:09 am

  Hello Maeve:When I saw the title Writing about Dogs, I thought that you were going to deal with such things as, Is a dog a he, a she, or an it?

• Dale A. Woodon July 03, 2016 1:22 am

  The problem with the names of different breeds or varieties of dogs extends to the Big Question of what to do with the names of different families, species, subspecies, and breeds of all of the animals and plants. For example, here is how I go at it: flying squirrel, moose, blue whale, Douglas fir, Burbank grape, sweet potato, Holstein cow, Pacific bottlenose dolphin, chimpanzee, gorilla**, Persian cat, Burmese cat, tabby cat, ocelot, giraffe, musk ox, field corn, English pea.**giving its family, genus, and species, we have the unusual zoological name of Gorilla gorilla gorilla.

• Madlyn F Springstonon September 25, 2021 6:49 pm

  Thanks for the great information! I have learned that sometimes context is more important than style rules:)

Do You Capitalize The Second Word In A Hyphenated Title

Sentence case: dont capitalize the second word in a hyphenated word unless its a proper noun, because it would never be the first word in the title.

Title case: capitalize words following hyphens if you would capitalize them if they stood alone. For example, in the title 7 Decision-Making Tools, making gets capitalized because its a verb that would get capitalized in a title alone. In the title 11 Ways to Increase Year-to-Year Profits, todoesnt get capitalized because its a preposition that would not normally be capitalized in a title.

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Do You Capitalize The Word And In A Title

Sentence case and title case: only capitalize and if its the first letter in the title or if it is part of a proper name such as that for a book or movie .

This is because and is a conjunction and is less than five letters. This is the same answer for all short conjunctions, so it would answer any of the following questions too.

• Do you capitalize the word or in a title?
• Do you capitalize the word yet in a title?
• Do you capitalize the word nor in a title?

Where Should Your German Shepherd Sleep

They tend to sleep on their side to allow their legs to feel more relaxed. And when they sleep on their side, it means they feel safe with their environment. Why do GSDs like to sleep with their owners?

German Shepherd puppies will require more regular feeding of three to four times a day spaced throughout the day.

An adult GSD of between 60 lb to 90 lb you will feed 3-5 cups of dog food daily .

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Dog And Cat Breed Capitalization

Individual species, breeds or varieties within a category follow the same capitalization rules surrounding proper nouns and common nouns. The part of the breed that is derived from a proper noun is capitalized, whereas a part derived from a common noun is not. That’s why “German shepherd” should have a capital “G” for German, but a lowercase “s” for shepherd. The rules would be similar for a French bulldog and English foxhound but lowercase for a cocker spaniel or golden retriever.

Some dogs names include proper nouns for places and people like:

• Airedale terrier
• British shorthair
• Siamese cat

That being said, some websites like the American Kennel Club and The Cat Fanciers Association capitalize the names of breeds: German Shepherd, French Bulldog and English Foxhound. However, this goes against official standards, like those described by the MLA Style Center .

This Not That Not All Same Rules Apply

Remember the planets? Well, you capitalize those, but not other celestial bodies, like the sun or the moon. And like this, rules that apply to certain things may not apply to many others that would seem related .

You capitalize months but not seasons . You capitalize the name of the medical condition but not of the disease itself . You capitalize titles, but not occupations . You capitalize regions, but not points of the compass . You capitalize course titles but dont capitalize general subjects . And, you dont capitalize animals, but you do capitalize the name of the breed in some instances . Heres where we go in.

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Capitalisation Of Breed Names

Please see/join the discussion at the Manual of Style. Phaunt 10:29, 20 December 2007

I found this Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Archive but no discussion of capitalisation of dog breed names. Was there some consensus?Hafwyn 16:51, 29 May 2008

In the article about Pit Bull, User:The Blade of the Northern Lights changed the capitalization of dog breeds to lower case . However, dog breeds are capitalized everywhere else in Wikipedia. Please give your input here and/or at Talk:Pit Bull#Capitalization of dog breed. Andreas 13:06, 16 August 2010

I cant find any WP policy on this, but as far as I can see formal breed names of all domesticated animals are nearly always capitalised here and elsewhere . Conversely types of dog are not generally capitalised . The article states that pit bull is a term commonly used to describe several breeds of dog. That sounds like a type and so I would not capitalise it however the other names mentioned in the article are formal breed names and those ought to be capitalised.

Why You Shouldnt Usually Capitalize Dog Breeds

Dog-breed names are most often descriptions rather than proper nouns, and in these cases, they dont have to be capitalized. Grammatically speaking, retriever is the same type of term as person. For that reason, you wouldnt have to treat retrievers as proper nouns for capitalization.

In spite of that, youve probably seen many dog breeds capitalized anyway. That brings us to a couple of notable exceptions.

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Common And Proper Nouns

As a refresher, a common noun refers to a generic person, place or thing within a group. You wouldn’t capitalize nouns like a teacher, student, city, or country. On the other hand, a proper noun refers to a unique person, place or thing. Using the same examples, you would capitalize proper nouns like Mrs. Smith, Jerry, Los Angeles, and Mexico.

The First Word On A Text And Thus On A Sentence

The first word on any text or writing will always be capitalized, no matter its type of word. So, whether or not this first word is a proper noun or not, it will be capitalized just for being the very first. This rule extends to the first word on every sentence, identified by always immediately following a period or following a period at the end of a paragraph. Thus, being this word the first of a new one.

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When To Capitalize Animal And Plant Names

Few technical writing errors drive editors to distraction like superfluous capitalization does. This eruption of capitalitis is most often seen in references to plants and animals.

Words that comprise the names of plant species are generally lowercase: Lumber from the live oak is rarely used for furniture. Exceptions occur when one or more of the words is named after a person or a geographical location, as in the name of the California poppy.

An exception is also made for references to types of fruits and vegetables, such as Red Delicious apples or Early Girl tomatoes. Then there are names of cultivars, or cultivated varieties, of plants, such as that of a kind of broccoli, Brassica oleracea Calabrese.

The convention in botany is to enclose the name of the cultivar in single quotation marks. Note also the exception to the rule about placing closing punctuation within quotation marks this format, also employed in linguistics and philosophy, reflects the intention to clarify the precise terminology in question.

Notice the italicized name mentioned just above, and the jocular one in the first paragraph: Those are examples, respectively authentic and artificial, of binomial nomenclature, the system of Latin-inspired scientific names for life-forms. The first element, the genus name, is capitalized the second element, the species name, is not . Such terms, as shown here, are generally italicized.

Capitalizing The Names Of Different Animal Breeds

Ive already looked around for an answer to this question, but many answers contradict each other. What Id like to know is whether or not different animal breeds are capitalized in professional writing. If Im writing about my dog, Loki, would I say that hes a samoyed or a Samoyed pup?

• GEdgarMay 13 12 at 23:33
• Samoyed is a proper name it refers to a group of Uralic cultures and languages in Siberia. So it should be capitalized, just like the E in English setter. John LawlerMay 13 12 at 23:36
• The easiest thing to do might be simply to look it up on Wikipedia and see if its capitalized there. zpletanMay 13 12 at 23:40
• Easiest, but not necessarily what is commonly used. Doberman Pinscher gets two capital letters and in that article Old German Shepherd Dog gets four. Consequently we may need to know what the professional writing in the question actually means.

For our veterinary journals, we have a style guide that tells us which dog and cat breed names to capitalize. The list is based on entries in The American Heritage Dictionary . If the breed isnt listed in that dictionary, we editors come to a consensus and add it to our style guide.

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Are Dog Breed Names Capitalized

One question I see fairly often in proofreader, court reporter, and writing-related Facebook groups is Are dog breeds capitalized?

The short answer is, it depends.

If you are writing for an audience of dog lovers say, an article for a dog-related website, a sales letter targeting dog owners, or web copy for a breed association yes, capitalize each word in all breeds. Their dogs are important, and capital letters connote importance. A primary goal, obviously, is to win over the reader.

When it comes to capitalizing breed names for an audience of dog lovers, a great resource is the American Kennel Club breed list. The AKC even capitalizes the word dog! A German shepherd dog, according to the AKC, is a German Shepherd Dog.

The current trend in English is toward a more sparing use of capitalization. So if your audience is not primarily dog lovers, capitalize only the elements in the dog breed names that are derived from proper nouns. These generally will be a specific geographic region , a people group , or the name of a person involved with the dog breeds development .

Foreign words in dog breed names that do not translate to proper nouns in English do not warrant capitalization. Take the vizsla. It sounds foreign and fancy like it should be capitalized but it simply means beagle in Hungarian.

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Wikipedia Talk: Wikiproject Dogs/archive B4

• 38Breeds talk merge

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Traditional Holiday Terms In German

Whether you’re celebrating Christmas in a German-speaking country or you want to bring a few old-world traditions home, these German phrases and traditions will make your holiday truly authentic. The first two sections below contain general German Christmas and New Year’s greetings followed by the English translations. The subsequent sections are grouped alphabetically, with the English word or phrase printed first, followed by the German translations.

German nouns always start with a capital letter, unlike English, where only proper nouns or nouns that begin a sentence are capitalized. German nouns are also generally preceded by an article, such as die or der, which means “the” in English. So, study the tables, and you’ll be saying Fröhliche Weihnachten! as well as many other German holiday greetings in no time.

What Do The Rod And Staff Represent In Psalm 23

The staff and the rod are a part of the same tool, both working together in God’s gentle hands to remind us of His everlasting faithfulness and love. As children of God, we can take a deep breath knowing He is always with us, always protecting us, always guiding us, and always offering us a place of peace and rest.

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German New Years Greetings

Scientific Names For Animals

Another type of animal name that should be capitalized is the scientific name of a species. However, not all parts of the name will be capitalized. The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature breaks the scientific classification of animals into:

• a binomen – the generic name and the specific name
• a trinomen – the generic name followed by a specific name and a subspecific name

In this case, the generic name should be capitalized but not any other word in the title. For example:

• a dog would be Canis familiaris
• a cat is Felis catus
• a horse is Equus caballus
• a rabbit is Oryctolagus cuniculus
• a guinea pig is Cavia porcellus
• a goat is Capra aegagrus hircus

Because these are considered Latin names, they follow Latin capitalization rules.

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