A dog's life

Firstly, keep up the good work. The magazine is always a pleasure and a treat for me monthly. Just to pick you up on one thing, however. In Fiona Armstrong's article [November 2021] she wrote a wee piece on judging a dog show. Seventy-five per cent of the way through my face grimaced and my legs inadvertently crossed when she (as the judge of a dog show), referred to an 'alsatian'. Let's not pretend we don't all know what she means, but this is not a breed, and never has been.

The breed is 'German shepherd'. Long or short haired, it's a German shepherd. During one of the big old wars, people started referring to them as alsatians as no-one wished to utter the dirty-at-the-time word 'German'. The name came from the Alsace region in the French/German border and was used as a euphemism so no-one had to utter more at-the-time offensive terms. One should imagine also, so that the poor wee dogs didn't suffer inadvertent and unjustified cross species racism.

Anyway, I'd like to think we're past that. Scotland is (in my mind) a lovely, inclusive, welcoming part of Europe. So let's be open and free, celebrating our European pals, and let's get over the antiquated avoidance of referring to German shepherds as German shepherds! I can speak personally, and exclusively reveal that my own German shepherds don't even understand the German language.

Nein zu alsation!

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