Difference between.... - Page 9

@adhahn - you are arguing with an English woman,
living in England, about a word used in UK Canine
Circles (and not the wider definition of 'sharp' as a
pointy-edged thing LOL); please, answer my question
and tell me where, and preferably when, you meant ?

@ Mith - I'm arguing semantics, not substance; hard to
see how I'm being "washed out" of the argument.

adhahn, I have PM'd you.

Hund
I meant persons like you , Joan, jenni, and a few others whom I think are older ladies held the sway for a while with party card holding type strategy. Now its nice to see some experienced men weighing in .

Hund
I meant persons like you , Joan, jenni, and a few others whom I think are older ladies held the sway for a while with party card holding type strategy. Now its nice to see some experienced men weighing in .

Mithuna that is a stupid comment Joan jenni and the others you mentioned yesterday without the likes of them and lot more like them there would be nothing to learn on this board. These are people who have been around dog and are willing to share what they have learned over the years. Gee, BM , prager and many more all different countries all have knowledge on different areas . Mithuna u are a twat and you will never go any further because every post u try to sure shit

Hundmutter-

Sorry, I'm on the western side of USA. It's morning here and I just read your PM. I'm not a fan of arguing on the internet. If I'm in the right mood and come across a subject where I think someone might find my input interesting or helpful I may post. Otherwise I tend to just read and keep my fingers off the keyboard.

I need to get busy with my day but here is a brief response-

I developed an interest in working dogs about 20 years ago. “Sharp” and “Sharpness” was a term used in conversations, articles and books. This is how I came to understand the term “Sharp”. I'm not saying that it's correct; I'm just pointing out that the term was used in a manner that different from now. I believe the term 'Sharp' (as it relates to dogs) is an attempt to translate a concept from a different language into english. Maybe it was used incorrectly but it did have a common meaning even if it was technically wrong.

Back then, Sharpness was a quality that GSD's were supposed to have. It referred to a temperament trait. Sort of like asking how willing the dog was to bite or engage in combat with a person. It was not a yes/no question. A dog wasn't just Sharp or not Sharp. Rather, the level of Sharpness was measured or evaluated.

A dog with zero Sharpness meant he was a flat, sleepyhead who had zero interest in biting.
A dog with excessive Sharpness was too quick to bite and therefore dangerous/hard to control.
A dog with medium Sharpness basically meant the dog was willing to bite but had some common sense about him.

If someone simply said a dog was 'Sharp' in casual conversation, they were using lingo understood by others. Since it was commonly understood that Sharpness was a measured quality, other people in the conversation would know what the speaker actually meant based on the conversation itself. Saying a dog was Sharp could be a compliment meaning that the dog was a good choice for PP or SchH. If the conversation was different, saying a dog was Sharp might mean that the dog had an undesirable amount of Sharpness. Our lingo seems to have evolved to the point where we've forgotten that Sharpness was measured.

It's probably not necessary to point out the obvious, but Sharpness is NOT a measurement or description of WHY the dog is quick to bite. It's the dogs other character traits that determine WHY.

Just read the thread and found this statement:

"The old Joan/ Jenni/ Suzie/ BW/ Bee tree team have loaded this board with a pretty biased understanding of the working GSD temperament."

I didn´t know yet that I am a member of any team ?!? Thank you for admittance though - might be fun.

  I'm in good company, we can make it fun