[stylist] German shepard in fantasy world?

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

People from sheep and cattle country might confuse it with an Australian
shepherd or other herding type of very different appearance temperament,
since they're still bred for herding.  I do that when people refer to their
shepherds, unless I stop to think.  When I inquire about an interesting
mixed breed and hear it's a shepherd mix, I immediately start looking for
Aussie characteristics.  Which always seems odd, because I adore GSDs and am
not too far shy of being fanatical about them.

Off the top of my head, using the word 'shepherd" to denote the breed will
get the right general idea across, and you can use subtle descriptive or
behavioral clues to point the reader towards the correct type of shepherd.
Or you can always invent a new breed.  /smile/  I found myself doing that
with horses in my fantasy world.  I started out with the earth breeds that
fit the characteristics and functions I was looking for, most of them named
for place of origin in Europe, since the kingdom where the story begins is
based on a more-or-less European-style feudal political and physical
geography.  When I got serious about the story, I realized this would never
do!  So I had a great deal of fun inventing horse breeds.  I also invented a
dog breed, now that I think of it.  Fun stuff!

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of helene ryles
Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 11:12 AM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: [stylist] German shepard in fantasy world?

Here is another question. One of my characters Liza Bronze has 7
german shepard ex police dogs. The only problem is the country germany
doesn't exist in the world I'm writing about but the 'german shepherd'
dog does and has nothing to do with germany. Should I just leave the
'german' bit out and call it a shepard? Would people know what kind of
dog I meant?

Helene

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