I’ve been writing on this space for about five years now.
To be exact, it will be five years on July 7.
I can tell that my writing style has improved. Writing is one of those skills that only gets improved when one does it long enough to get a feel for the medium and to develop one’s own style. Writing prose that can be understood is difficult work. It doesn’t matter how much you know about grammar.
You have to lay the pieces just right, but if you don’t get some experience laying them, you’ll never know where they fit.
And no one can tell where they fit. You have to figure it out yourself.
When I was in undergrad, my sentences averaged 25 words per sentence. The sentences would be correct grammatically, but, boy, would you get lost in them!
I found that if I just tightened down a bit, the message would come across a little more clearly.
That’s why I write like this.
Now, it’s true I sometimes have typos or leave out a definite article (which is my most common crime).
But I don’t have an editor. Sometimes, I can’t detach myself from what I’m writing enough to see that I’ve left out something.
But I’m getting better at it.
Beyond writing,though, I have a much better grasp on my subject matter.
I knew a lot about the subjects I discuss on this blog before I started writing it, but I don’t think I fully grasped the entire sociology of dog people.
I think it’s because I grew up very far removed from where people showed dogs or did any competitions with them. Coonhound “night hunts” or “nite hunts” (as they are sometimes spelled) were about the only exception.
I don’t get much of the yuppie dog games. I think of agility as a poor man’s steeple chase, and of most “field” or “herding” trials, I think of them as having as much to do with the real thing as driving in a NASCAR race has to do with driving on the interstate.
I’ve made alliances over the years, and I’ve also dropped them when I saw that the person I allied myself to had simply given up on real ethical standards.
I’m not a shock jock blogger.
I can write anti-bulldog or anti-AKC screeds every day, but I don’t think I’m helping solve the problems.
I certainly will write one every once n a while, but if that’s all I did, then I’m sure what I’m producing here would grow stale.
I don’t think people want to read that every day.
Maybe I’m getting older and mellower.
Maybe I’m getting a thicker skin.
Or maybe I’ve figured out that the best way to brand myself through this blog is to be more “eclectic.”
This whole game is about selling yourself. This isn’t my private diary.
It is the exact opposite.
It is me telling you who I am.
Maybe you want to know. Maybe you don’t.
But if you’re reading this, I guess you do.
I don’t know how long I can keep this up.
I certainly don’t plan on quitting any time soon.
And I’ve far from run out of ideas. Nature and animals are always going to inspire me. There is no limit to what they can bring out in me.
The problem is that I just don’t have time to give each little piece of inspiration its due.
I’m not making a lot of money doing this.
I’m really doing this because my ego requires it.
I need to be respected as an authority– at least somewhere.
But now that people really do think of me an “expert,” it is quite humbling.
And also a bit terrifying. My words have some (albeit picayune) influence.
I must choose them more carefully.
Choosing more carefully slows down what I write, so you get less of me than you once did.
There are mote things to come.
It’s just going to take me a little longer to reveal them.
Please bear with me.
You will do in the end what is right for you! I enjoy your posts! But alas I often drift away from my blog…
Well said. Eclectic is what makes the world go ’round. Bashing the same hobby horse day after day gets old real fast.
Can’t wait to see the next episode!
Hi Scotty, I do a lot writing too–on-line and off–for my primary genealogical association (IMFA). I learned early on that I have what I call “keyboard dyslexia” so I’ve taken to writing my missives off-line, running spell check, and then posting them. For editing purposes, I often run them past fellow members before posting them as well. Even then, with the longer productions I give them a week or so to “cool” before revisiting and posting them. This helps reduce the junk prose tremendously.
A lot of us feel the need to be an authority on something. Few of us come clean about that feeling. Keep it up. You’re doing great!
You got one thing right – you are an expert. I am looking forward to reading not one or two, but many books in the near future.
Writing never comes esker unless you limit your output to a specific topic. For more varied subject matters, difficulties abound. The nature of language itself leads to many problems. First, anything can be said in myriad ways. This is true of every human language. Second, the order of presentation can be varied. That is, what you start with and how you end, as well as putting all the sentences together in a clear, lively narrative style. You might be interested in my blog:http://smarthotoldlady.blogspot.com. This blog is devoted to language. Also, among the books and articles I’ve written is one that might interest you, “Language the Social Mirror” now in its 4th edition.
I also have a blog on dogs (dogsandwolves.blogspot.com) and you can compare the writing to that in “Language the Social Mirror.”
BTW, how do you make money from your blog? Perhaps I should ask how one makes money on a blog. I ask because I have two blogs, both with respectable numbers of readers, but I have no clue as to how to turn them into profit makers.
I am writing a book on dogs and how they civilized humans, however. Maybe that will yield some royalties.
“…most ‘field’ or ‘herding’ trials, I think of them as having as much to do with the real thing as driving in a NASCAR race has to do with driving on the interstate.”
Well, as a person who does both hunt tests and the “real thing,” I’d both agree and disagree. The rules of hunt tests make the game unlike hunting. I mean, who cares if your dog goes in an absolutely straight across the water to get a bird? In real hunting, I just want him to get across the water — I don’t care so much about straight.
But, I will say that having trained for and participated in hunt tests has made my dog a better hunting companion, able to retrieve birds that glide away after being shot and land where the dog couldn’t have seen it fall, 175 yards away, able to read my gestures and understand my whistles. It gives them practice finding and flushing birds, learning where birds are likely to hide. It’s also made me a much better dog handler, better able to read my dog when he’s on a bird.
I like the games. And the dogs like the games, too. They get us outside and working together. The rules are just rules — you accept them because that’s the game. Not the same as hunting, but enjoyable and useful nonetheless.
Too bad it also ruins their gene pools.
Too bad it also creates monster lines of obsessive border collies and lunker Labradors.
Too bad it makes it impossible for anyone to consider minority breeds anymore, even if they are better for general hunting or herding purposes.
Not that I haven’t been paying attention to your blog, but, what minority dogs do you think are better for either? What animals come to mind that are underused? Just curious.
Chesapeake Bays are underrated. They don’t win trials– at all.
Those Irish water spaniels have a good nose but they are much more independent than the other retrievers. They are still spaniels in terms of their phylogeny, after all.
Golden retrievers aren’t a minority breed but their talents aren’t really evaluated effectively in trials that are about lining and marking. They are better evaluated for ones that involve game finding, nose, and problem solving ability combined with cooperation.
I’m attracted to Chessies! No one in my area owns one but you’d be surprised to see a number of them in Manhattan. Then again, those people have EVERYTHING. I met a guy who had a Great Pyr and a Briard in his skyscraper 2 bedroom.
I just hope he had a country house somewhere at least to take them.
All the other Chessies I’ve met have been at a dog show here and there with mom ( I only go when SHE wants to go – can’t refuse that girl), Cape Cod or Maine….so far.
I think the whole concept of improving bloodlines by breeding from an elite that is arbitrarily chosen from a competition that was largely created by rednecks arguing over what their dogs can do isn’t really all that much better than conformation nonsense.
You cannot breed for an elite and not wind up screwing up somewhere. And Labrador retrievers are a good example of this with the trial lines having weak cruciate ligaments and even that exercise induced collapse.
People bred hunting dogs thousands of years before they started playing dog games. Chesapeake Bays and St. John’s water dogs (which are almost the same thing) were tough water dogs and hunter long before someone game up with series of tests and trial to encourage people to breed from an elite.
I personally HATE games. I hated them when I was a kid. I don’t watch any sports on TV. I can’t tell you who won the super bowl or toilet bowl.
I find it is bizarre that we would use the same concepts to make breeding decisions for dogs.
I’m w/ you on sports and games Scotty–they just don’t interest me. (The only “Bowl: I watch is the Puppy Bowl. Dogs playing together naturally are fun to watch.) But the dogs involved in Frisbee contests, et al, do seem to enjoy themselves. Like Little League Baseball, its only when the “serious” people get involved that problems arise.
On the other hand, I like solving puzzles–almost any kind. I’d rather compete against myself and my own limitations than against others I guess.
A lot of the E collar arguments I’ve been in had me rethinking some of the trials. I’ve argued that E collars are not needed over 95% of the time, but I refuse to ban them altogether for certain exceptions; the occasional hardheaded cattle dog whose owner needs to make a living, and certain specially bred military or police dogs, IF needed.
A lot of people in herding or hunting TRIALS, use e collars to fine tune their dogs….to win prizes??!?!?!?!
IMHO, I draw the line there. It seems to me that the use of an E collar at a trial is neither a testament to one’s true training ability based on a partnership, nor a dog’s natural ability. Plus I can’t see wanting to shock or even vibrate my dog into doing something, for such a non-essential purpose. Seems like a screwy set of values to me.