Dogs and other animals

StephanieFox said:

What do you guys think?

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I think since we're becoming more and more capitalization-happy, we should capitalize all nouns, as German writers do.

Of course, then we'll think pronouns should be every bit as important as nouns, so we'll want to capitalize He, She, It, Them, etc.

Maybe verbs will be next and . . .

I think that the complete name of the breed should be capitalized.

Whose official style? I have this odd feeling that the APA manual, of all places, came down on the side of capitalizing, but since my copy is packed and buried, please don't hold me to it. This strikes me as the sort of thing where three manuals will hand down four opinions or none.

In my alternate life* as a dog writer, I tend to go by AKC rules and capitalize. The reader who isn't a big dog person will probably overlook it and the target audience gives me that much more benefit-of-doubt that I know what I'm talking about. If your editor isn't a dog person, I believe there's a page at the AKC website to back you up. The other practical matter is that with complex breed names like German Shepherd Dog, if you're formal and capitalize the first time, you're far less likely to confuse your reader with the pretty-standard abbreviation GSD thereafter.

Of course, that leaves me without a clue what to do with labradoodle/Labradoodle, as genetically speaking it's a mutt but the price tag and rituals of its production suggest it must be a breed. I avoid the politics by pretending those don't exist.

*disclaimer: not my only alternate life