Talk:Dog/Draft

Plan for this article (Dog)

This article is aimed to be a reasonably comprehensive but brief introduction to a single (sub)species. Although the article aims to be biologically correct to the scientist, it is aimed at the general reader who is much more likely to be interested in dogs as pets. That interest is used as something of a lure to bring the reader to other biological and social topics in CZ, but is always satisfied by exploring the most pertinent aspects of (1) why dogs make good pets, (2) proper care of pet dogs (3) important factors in choosing and training a pet dog (breed, etc). The language should always be plain, with special terms clearly explained. When possible, the language should be entertaining rather than dull.

Discussion

1. Changed the first sentence "Dog is a mammal...in the order.... The entire Classification is already there in a box, and this sort of introduction is horribly boring,

What not to feed dogs

Hi Nancy, I like dogs but I don't know much about them. There's all sorts of stuff in the section you deleted that I didn't know. Maybe that's because it's false or uncertain (and you can't know false or uncertain stuff), but surely not all of it is false or uncertain? And remember, 11-year-olds will be reading this article, and it might be news to them that you shouldn't give dogs gum. --Larry Sanger 14:42, 15 December 2006 (CST)

We can address this! Nancy Sculerati MD 07:41, 16 December 2006 (CST)

I started in on the "gum" issue and here's the problem. No, you shouldn't give dogs gum, sure enough. You also shouldn't give them: erasers, lipstick, mouthwash, hard candies, caramels, charcoal, marshmallows, mortar, and a list of household items that goes on and on. All of these things are things dogs will likely accept, of course, especially if lovingly offered by their buddy, the 11 year old kid. But- If we put in "gum", but we leave out something else that seems equally appropriate to the person who has to be explictly told not to give gum, we are almost implying that it's only gum you really have to worry about. Further, if we mention gum as a no=no for dogs, what about cats? Parrots? Rabbits? Gerbils? I guess there are those people, the sort of person who lacks common sense understanding, who might assume that if a "food" like gum is specifically mentioned as forbidden for dog, but left it off the list for cats, then it must be ok for cats. Right? So, no I prefer to use general guidelines fo feeding (that are not finished yet). :) Nancy Sculerati MD

Layout issue-need picture, please help

The juxtaposition of the Classification info box and the Content Outline box leaves a big gap in the page. This is generally true for all articles containing both. Not having the capability to come up with a better layout (hint to somebody who does) I would like a large picture of dogs in all kinds of activities that nicely balances in that space. A collage would do, as would a large picture that has a lot going on (dog show- field trials- etc.) Please help you visual arts/photo mavens!! Nancy Sculerati MD 07:46, 16 December 2006 (CST)

The gap between the Contents menu and the infobox is often a problem. The main problem is how big is the gap? The higher your screen resolution and the bigger your monitor, the bigger the gap. On my laptop, there's not such a big gap. You have to be careful what you put in this place. If you put in a image that fills all of your screen, it might break the layout in my screen.

It is possible to let the article text fill this space. This simply requires adding a tag in the page markup that floats the content menu to the left or the right (why you would float right I don't know). The text will then fill the center area. Look up the WP help pages will tell you how (I don't have WP access form here - China) The advantage of filling with text rather than an image is that the text will automatically wrap it's self to fill the space perfectly, no matter what size that space is. Derek Harkness 05:16, 20 December 2006 (CST)

Do you think at the very end of the article we could have an alphabetical list of all the kinds of dogs? -Tom Kelly (Talk) 15:01, 4 February 2007 (CST)

There is another article - Dog breed, that I think such a list might be helpful. Nancy Sculerati MD 15:31, 4 February 2007 (CST) Or maybe there should be a separate "LIst of Dog Breeds" that both could link to? What do you think? Nancy Sculerati MD 15:32, 4 February 2007 (CST)