A Thesaurus of Dog Show Obedience Terms
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A Thesaurus of Dog Show Obedience Terms |
ANNOTATED LIST OF SOURCES CONSULTEDprint resourcesAitchison, Jean, Alan Gilchrist, and David Bawden. Thesaurus construction
This volume is one of the key works in the field. It was a valuable resource for us as we used it to cross-check and clarify many of the points in the NISO standard. It includes topics such as planning and design of thesauri, standards for construction and construction techniques, structure and relationships.
American National Standards Institute. Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Thesauri; Z39.19-2003. Bethesda: NISO Press, 2003.
This was a primary resource for the construction of the Thesaurus of Dog Show Obedience Terms. Our well-worn copies provided us with standards and rules for every stage of thesaurus construction, from the initial concept to the final layout and display. Particularly helpful were the sections on Scope, Form, and Choice of Descriptors (Section 3); Relationships (Section 5); and Screen Display (Section 7). The glossary was very helpful in clarifying and resolving problem points, and the appendices provided valuable visual aids.
Bennett, James Gordon. Command-Train Your Dog: Foolproof Obedience Techniques for Home and Show. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1980.
This source is specific to dog training. Therefore, we did not use it once we eliminated dog training from the topic focus.
Coile, D. Caroline. Show Me!: A Dog-Showing Primer. Hauppauge, NY: Barrons, 1997.
Similar in scope and format to the "Absolute Beginners Guide to Showing Your Dog", this book is also one of the essential publications in the literature. The "Know The Lingo" glossary is divided into various subcategories pertaining to show terms, breeding terms, and movement terms, which helped to define the various subject classes and group terms under them. The "Abbreviations" glossary provides a list of award and title/ranking acronyms and their corresponding meanings, which was extremely useful in defining our preferred and non-preferred terms in these categories. Hall, Lynn. Dog Showing for Beginners. Indianapolis, IN : Howell Book House, 1994.
An informative look at the essentials of dog showing for beginners, this book walked us through every step. Dog Showing for Beginners is not so much training manual as it is a guide to the atmosphere of dog shows, which has been described as "organized confusion". Just as the book claims, this resource is an excellent start for beginners, although now a little dated. The book was especially useful for us because it was written for newcomers to the sport. Particularly helpful were the introductory chapters on dog show essentials and the structure of dog shows. We also found information on the pros and cons of dog showing, breed information, kennel clubs to join, and how to get your dog over beginner errors and into the spot light.
Hart, Ernest H. How to Train Your Dog. Jersey City, NJ: T.F.H. Publications, 1967.
This source had some useful chapters on training for competitive dog showing, but was not used as a source as the same information was provided in our more primary dog-show sources.
Nichols, Virginia Tuck. How To Show Your Own Dog. Neptune City, NJ: T.F.H. Publications, 1976.
This odd, stuffy little book offered some assistance in its chapter on "Terms and Definitions", particularly in defining the various groups, classes, and breed terms defined by the American Kennel Club (AKC). However, it was far more useful as a source of laughs, taking almost three pages to explain to the gentle reader why s/he should not be alarmed that a female dog is indeed referred to as a bitch. For example: "In breeding we refer to our females (female what?) as bitches. Correctly you say, 'I will bring my bitch to be bred to your dog on Wednesday,' or, 'You own a lovely bitch', or, 'Yes, she is a wonderful brood bitch.'...It is unfortunate that the word bitch has another meaning not so nice as its true definition - a female of the dog. However, do learn to speak the word bitch around dogs and dog people and know that when you do so you are correct." With 1950's photography and a dedication that reads "characters in this book are not fictitious, and any similarity to persons living or dead is purely intentional, Tuck's book plays the dog show as pure camp.
Smith, Cheryl S. The Absolute Beginners Guide to Showing Your Dog. Roseville,CA: Prima Publishing, 2001.
This comprehensive book is one of the essential publications available on the subject of dog shows. As such, it was an extremely useful source as a crash course for our group, as none of us knew anything about dog shows beyond having enjoyed Christopher Guest's wonderful film "Best In Show". The extensive glossary helped to define our preferred terms in order to organize them into the appropriate hierarchies, while the numerous appendices provided alphabetical lists of breeds, varieties, classes, and kennel clubs. The BOB index was also useful for quick reference, subdividing indexed terms into various subject facets concerning them.
Unkelbach, Evie, and Unkelbach, Kurt. The Pleasures of Dog Ownership. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971.
As we compiled our terminology from various sources, we discovered a great deal of overlap between dog training, dog obedience, dog breeding, and dog showing. As we focused the thesaurus, the dog training aspect of our subject was discarded in favour of show-specific terminology. This source was a general book on all aspects of dog ownership, although it had a useful list of dog breeds and a glossary of dog show parlance.
Wetson, David. Dog Training: the gentle modern method. NY: Howell Book House, 1992.
Although this book did not solely focus on dog shows it was still a useful resource as it disclosed various training techniques and terminology appropriate to well trained dogs. Within this book were nice photographs that illustrated the various commands that prove to be important in the dog show world.
Woodhouse, Barbara. No Bad Dogs. New York: Summit Books, 1982.
Barbara Woodhouse is the mother superior of all dog trainers, due to her enormously popular BBC TV series "Training Dogs the Woodhouse Way". As we narrowed the scope of the thesaurus, the dog discipline/training terms were dropped in favour of show terms. As a result, "No Bad Dogs" became less useful as a reference source. However, the book's chapter on "Rigid Obedience" was useful as an overview of dog obedience exercises, while Woodhouse's pithy wit and stodgy corrective tone serves as the inspiration for our beloved Dame Edna, MBE.
web resourcesAKC. "Obedience Regulations". American Kennel Club, 2004. < http://www.akc.org/registration/rules/RO2999.cfm > (10 March 2004).
The American Kennel Club has developed a very thorough site outlining the various dog champion levels for the confused beginner. This site also discusses exactly what one should expect when approaching the ring and the terminology used with each task. We were most interested in this site for sorting out the confusing acronyms within the showing world.
Boschert, Ken. "The Electronic Zoo". NetVet: Mosby's Veterinary Guide to the Internet, 1998. < http://netvet.wustl.edu/dogs.htm > (10 March 2004).
This is a comprehensive list of Veterinary, Medical, and Animal resources available on the Internet and in print, compiled by Dr. Ken Boschert, a Veterinarian at Washington University's Division of Comparative Medicine. The Dog section was particularly interesting to us; although it contained many broken links it still provided us with useful educational information on dog breeds, shows, and clubs.
Kalbaugh, Pat. "Definitions of Terms Used In Obedience". All About Dogs!, July 31, 2000. < http://www.siriusweb.com/AAD/ukcdefin.html > (11 February 2004).
"All About Dogs" is a personal website compiled by dog lover and Juneau Alaska native Pat Kalbaugh. The home page describes this site as "a friendly and fun place to learn about dogs, dog training, and activities with dogs". What was truly useful about this site is the "UKC Info" section, which provides numerous links to sites concerning the United Kennel Club (Great Britain), including the official UKC website. In addition, there are links providing explanations of UKC Obedience and Obedience Trials, a history of the UKC, and a glossary of UKC dog show terms.
Leilah's Mom. "Discovering Competitive Obedience". Leilah's Laughs, September 14, 2002. < www.wonderpuppy.net/compobed.htm > (9 March 2004).
This site is a brief introduction to the resources, terminology, and expectations of basic dog show training. Overall, a good beginner's site.
NADOI. "Homepage". The National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors, Inc., March 10, 2004. < http://www.nadoi.org/ > (11 March 2004).
The National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors, Inc. was founded in 1965 to "elevate the standards of the dog instructing profession". This site was important for our first iteration of terms related to dog obedience training, but as we narrowed the scope to dog show oedience, it became less important in the development of the thesaurus.
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