Talk:Dalmatian/Archive 1

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Contents

Run Dalma Run!

Why would one breed a dog to run along horses or carriages? Kent Wang 01:27, 29 May 2004 (UTC)

--> They were used primarily for stage coach protection, therefore lived with the horses. They were also used to run ahead of the old fire wagon pulled by horses to clear the road. Stuart Pid.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 131.137.245.198 (talk • contribs) .
LOL! The same reason why people breed freakish looking poodle or pug. --Menchi 02:09, 29 May 2004 (UTC)
I found better info in my dog books. Does this answer the question mo better? (You ask interesting questions! :-) ) And Poodles aren't really freakish looking (see photos on breed page). They're actually quite standard-looking beasties!--just the haircut seems sometimes a little odd to us normal people, and we don't have photos of those more hoity-toity cuts in their article. Probably should. Now, Pugs, on the other hand-- Elf | Talk 02:32, 29 May 2004 (UTC)
Great edits to this article recently! I really like the extra content and clarification. --Nevilley 23:37, 29 May 2004 (UTC)

Smaller Danish Dog

However, I took out this sentence: "It is also sometimes, believed to erroneously, named Smaller Danish Dog." - as it does not on the face of it seem to make sense. What does it mean? Can we sort it out and put it back? --Nevilley 23:37, 29 May 2004 (UTC)

I have no idea and couldn't figure it out but left it there hoping that someone else might know what it meant. I'm guessing that something somewhere (no idea in or out of wikip) refers to it as a "smaller danish dog" and whoever added this was pointing out that this is incorrect. Don't know whether it's necessary unless it's an authoritative source, but I don't know and didn't check history to figure out who added this. Elf | Talk 20:04, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)
I wrote that to mean "Dalmatian is also sometimes called "Smaller Danish Dog", but some people believe that name is erroneous" (since it also applies to some bulldogs, it seems). OED says "Dalmatian dog, the spotted coach-dog, sometimes called ‘smaller Danish dog’. Also Dalmatian pointer, etc." --Menchi 22:10, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)
I seem to remember it was due to the naming of the Great Dane, that the seeming similarity in coloring of the Harlequin Great Dane and Dalmatians made people call one the "Greater Dane Dog" and the other the "Smaller Dane Dog" Elipongo 08:27, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

Move this to Disambig page?

So, I am a Dalmatian too... ehm... and I'm not a dog. :) Dalmatians are also the inhabitants of Dalmatia, so I would like to move this page to "Dalmatian (dog)" and make "Dalmatian" a disambig page which would link to Dalmatia (for the people). If there are no objections in the next few days I'd like to proceed with that change. --Arny 20:58, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

  • Sounds prudent to me. I own a Dalmation (dog) and I don't think he would mind, either. :) Accurizer 21:11, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
  • What?! No way! Only dogs are allowed to be Dalmatians! The rest of you must resign yourselves to becoming... er, um, Dalmatioids! Er, Dalmatiacs! Er, well, hmmm, OK, I guess your suggestion is a better one. (There's plenty of precedence for doing this, e.g., Maltese, Pomeranian. Just remember to fix all the redirects...and it's a big list for this one. Maybe someone could make a bot--? Thanks.) Elf | Talk 21:30, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
Hey, we Dalmatians (khm, people) sure did a fine job breeding such nice dogs for others to enjoy, at least we deserve a disambig entry ;) It seems there shouldn't be any serious objections so here is my plan: I'll move this to "Dalmatian (dog)", make "Dalmatian" disambig page for the dog and "Dalmatia", then correct the redirect "Dalmation" to point directly to the dog, and then correct links from the pages concerning dog breeds. The other links could be left as they are since they'd just be pointing to the disambig page (and I've seen many such cases on WP), or I might just engage in a manual "Search and destroy" campaign and hunt other links. What do you think? Greetings, fellow dog lovers from the sworn wikignome Arny 02:25, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Ok, here's the deal: I made the change and corrected links from all articles about dogs and/or dalmatians I could find. There remain some links from userpages and articles concerning other topics. They now simply go to the disambiguation page (for which I used Maltese page as the template). This OK? --Arny 00:17, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

  • OK. Thanks. Elf | Talk 01:27, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Copyright problem!

Much of what's on this page is identical to that on http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/dalmatian.htm. That site states "The Material contained herein may not be reproduced without the prior written approval of the author. © 1998-2006 All Rights Reserved." 198.49.180.40 17:51, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

Have to say, I can't see any relation (even when looking at versions from May 2006). Both articles mention many of the same points, but then they are discussing the same subject. -- Solipsist 08:02, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Smiles

The article states that dalmations are "unique" in being able to smile. Does anyone have a reference to prove this is true? I have seen several dogs from other breeds do this as well, so I think a reputable source may be hard to find! --Rachel 22:56, 3 Oct 2006

I think it's rubbish too. Of three English Springer Spaniels owned by my family in succession, two have "smiled" in exactly the same way that the Dalmatian here is doing. -- Necrothesp 01:19, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

New Picture

In response to the picture request, I have added two new photographs of our dog Paris (or Zagrab's Temptress at TNG), who is now retired from showing. Both pictures are from different angles, showing the front and side of the dog, both in the stacked, show conformation style. Mllefantine 01:23, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Print

Something's wrong with the Printable Version. I can only see a chaos there.

Historical inaccuracy

Found this while reading the history section of the article: "...However, no historical evidence of this breed being present in the Balkans dates before the early 20th century, when they where brought there by England." This is simply not true. There is a handful of evidence that these dogs were bred in Dalmatia during the medieval ages and where used as war dogs for taking down horses by biting them at the snout. In fact, there was a whole regiment equipped with these animals that fought against the Turks in the battle of Mohacko polje. 161.53.129.244 14:04, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Comparison with harlequin great danes

There was a statement saying that no other breed has spotted markings "(except for the "Harlequin" variety of the Great Dane). This is false: a harlequin's markings are more akin to a cow's patchy black markings; patches of color are undesirable on dalmatians, with the standard calling for clearly distinguishable, round spots (key here is the distinction between spot and patch). While it's true that a certain resemblance exists between dalmatians and harlequin great danes, it should be phrased in a way that makes it clear that it's just a resemblance, and in no way are the dalmatian's spots non-unique among dogs. With apologies to Ossipewsk, I chose to remove the statement since it's a bit misleading; I'm not opposed to adding this information again but please phrase in a way that makes this issue as clear as possible. Thanks! Roadmr (t|c) 02:07, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Fair call, I guess. Although I'd point out that most of the article's Dally show-pictures (including the first three head shots and the type-photo in the InfoBox) show specimens where the dark markings on the front half of the dogs could accurately be called "patches" rather than "spots" - especially on the ears, necks and chests. They're certainly larger than the "size of a dime to the size of a half-dollar" spots defined by the AKC standard and just as big, proportionately, as the black markings on a harlequin Great Dane.--Ossipewsk 03:46, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

So to be correct according to the standard... I guess we shouldn't have named our Dal "Patches!" But I just couldn't imagine calling her "Spot!" ;-)

Use of language

I note a lot of words and phrases like "must" and "is not acceptable" in this article (e.g. "In liver Dalmatians, the nose must always be brown", "The blue eye is not acceptable in British Dalmatians"). It's written a little too much like a dog show handbook. Just because a dog does not meet the strict requirements of showing does not mean it's "not acceptable", just that it can't be shown. The whole tone strikes me, as a dog lover but not someone in any shape or form interested in the artificial world of dog shows, as somewhat arrogant, and I really think it should be rewritten in a slightly less condescending tone. By all means say what the dog show requirements are, but don't imply that dogs which are slightly outside those requirements are somehow inferior or unacceptable, any more than you would imply that human beings who are not among the "beautiful people" are somehow inferior or unacceptable. This is no more than a POV, and as in every other class of article there is no place for it in Wikipedia. -- Necrothesp 00:35, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

Hey! I've gone ahead and edited the article a little bit to improve it in this regard. I rephrased the indication that the british standard does not accept "such small" animals, to merely state the documented requirement for taller dogs. I also outright removed the "blue eye is not acceptable" sentence since it's unsourced and even the standard makes no mention of that requirement. I believe those two sentences were the worst offenders; I'll think of a way to rephrase the rest of the article to reflect the fact that, while a dalmatian not conforming to the standard will do poorly on the show floor, it's still a perfectly good dog. I know my dalmatian would fail miserably on a show but you should see the way she turns heads when we're walking her. Dalmatian charm rules! Roadmr (t|c) 00:25, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
Good work. I've done a bit of copyediting. Hopefully all kennel club snobbishness now eliminated. -- Necrothesp 13:13, 21 February 2007 (UTC)