mydawgs wrote:Game is the will to win or die trying AS MEASURED IN THE PIT!!!!!!!
Yes, it is my belief that this is correct. I have no desire to call my dog game if he is great at weight pull, agility, dragging down intruders or climbing trees. It just feels very odd to me.
mydawgs wrote: It would be like having a lab that doesn't hunt, or a blood hound that doesn't scent because they are pets.
Can you call that Lab a great hunting dog or the Bloodhound a great tracker if they are back-yard pets and have never seen a dead duck in the cold water or a dense forest on a hot day?
mydawgs wrote: You are right game has many dimensions and only the pit tests them ALL at the same time
That is correct. It is a very specific kind of test.
mydawgs wrote:so what, if there is not a pit then these dogs don't have this trait, rediculous.
They may or may not have the characteristic. But I'm not going to say the Bloodhound is a great tracker ("game" at HIS specialty), unless I see him prove it.
mydawgs wrote: Stop biasing the word and don't worry about an illegal activity
You are the one wanting to find something your dog can do so you can call him "game". Lora (and I) have no desire to use the term referencing our dogs, except maybe to say some of the ancestors were proven game, but that it is a immoral, illegal activity today. And that "leftovers" of that kind of gameness have filtered down to serve the dogs well today. And that they are not "game" in the traditional sense - for this breed.
mydawgs wrote: I would just stop referencing it if is bothersome to you, it is not threatening to me nor folks that do use it.
That's fine, we'll use it to honor what the dogs of yesterday did to be proven game.
Oh, and what was that they did? Oh, I know - didn't quit at weight-pulling and maybe got badly hurt engaging a boar...okay.
I don't mean to offend and I understand where you are coming from, mydawgs, but this is just the way I see it. I choose to limit the meaning of the term when it comes to this breed and to honor what kind of traits it DID give to us, which I believe are quite unique in themselves.
Carla