Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Dogs

Sources

I've just removed from German Shepherd some content cited to perfectdogbreeds.com, on the grounds that that is not a reliable source (it's registered to an anonymous entity in Cheshire, England). I've also recently removed from the same page content cited to yourpurebredpuppy.com and dogster.com, for the same reason – these are random internet websites with no reputation for accuracy or reliability, and not remotely suitable for use as sources for Wikipedia. I'd like to suggest that as a matter of urgency we should start a list of such unusable sites, with a view to removing them in short order from any article that cites them, and setting up filters that would prevent them from being added anywhere in Wikipedia; and also make a start on a more difficult task, that of identifying some sources for which there is consensus that that they are to be considered reliable by our standards.

As a very small start, I propose deprecation of:

• perfectdogbreeds.com
• yourpurebredpuppy.com
• dogster.com

and recognition as reliable of

• fci.be

Is this worthwhile? Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 22:20, 16 March 2020 (UTC)

Discussion, general agreement

Agree, about the three sites you have mentioned above, all completely fail as RS:

• perfectdogbreeds.com terms of service states "Perfectdogbreeds does not promise that the site or any content, service or feature of the site will be error-free ... Perfectdogbreeds disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including any warranties of accuracy ..."
• yourpurebredpuppy.com terms of use states "We make no guaruntee or warranty that our information is accurate, legal, reliable or safe."
• dogster.com terms and conditions of use states "Belvoir Media Group LLC does not warant that the sites will operate error-free ..." NB Belvoir Media Group LLC is the website's owner

On a number of pages I have had to remove similar content from a number of similar websites most of which make similar disclaimers, and it seems to be the same editors that continually reintroduce it. Just because it gets a Google hit doesn't make it reliable and/or notable.

Re fci.be, personally I do not believe it should be treated any differently to any other national kennel club. Kind regards, Cavalryman (talk) 23:08, 16 March 2020 (UTC).

Just my opinion: the FCI evaluates the information submitted by individual kennel clubs, and this places it a a higher level of reliability; however, I added it here simply as an example of a website that we could, with due caution, regard as reliable.

Some more that we cannot trust may be:

• mastiffdogssite.com – page content consists only of: "ok"
• completedogsguide.com – somebody's random website, "My name is Adam and it was my idea to create this dog web site"
• BSL Information, somebody's random website on Tripod

I've removed all three from Kumaon Mastiff. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 21:38, 17 March 2020 (UTC)

Also:

• scamperingpaws.com ("I'm not a vet. I have no medical background whatsoever. I'm just a regular pet owner who has cared for old pets through a variety of medical conditions."), removed from Rafeiro do Alentejo. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 22:08, 17 March 2020 (UTC)

Some more:

• www.bulldoginformation.com
• dogappy.com
• www.pawculture.com
• www.petpremium.com
• thehappypuppysite.com
• www.thelabradorsite.com

What are your thoughts on the best way to deal with these formally? Lump them together under an RfC at RSN? If passed we could add a list to the project page with a permalink. Kind regards, Cavalryman (talk) 01:36, 18 March 2020 (UTC).

Agreed. JLAN and Cavalryman, I regard a website as being only reliable as the sources its cites. Many of these websites (above) have no author taking responsibility for the content, do not cite sources, and are basically anonymous opinion pieces. I am in favour of removing anything they have to offer, and encourage Project members to grasp the nettle and commence their deletions from all dog-related articles. William Harristalk 00:59, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

First thoughts on how to start dealing with these: either just go ahead and remove them and see if there's any complaint, or (probably better in the long term):

• reach consensus here on those listed above – is a week long enough for all interested to comment?
• start a /Deprecated sources subpage and
• use Special:LinkSearch to find and remove any mainspace occurrence of those;
• rinse and repeat.

It seems to me that those listed so far are so obviously unusable, and so unlikely to be used outside this wikiproject, that local consensus should be sufficient; but if anyone suggests that these might be appropriate sources then yes, RfC is the next step.

Removing crap websites seems to be the easy part; identifying and agreeing on unusable books may be more of a challenge. Thoughts? Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 11:26, 20 March 2020 (UTC)

Justlettersandnumbers, William Harris, Cavalryman and other interested editors - please see User_talk:Atsme/sandbox#More about RS Wikipedia:WikiProject Dogs/Reliable sources ^{Updated the link Atsme 💬 📧 16:07, 26 January 2021 (UTC)}. Perhaps we should also consider establishing a subpage such as Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Perennial_sources. ^Atsme _Talk 📧 12:02, 20 March 2020 (UTC)

More bad sites

I wish to add to the list, some I have removed today:

• vetstreet.com
• dogbreedplus.com
• 101dogbreeds.com
• dogtime.com
• dogs.petbreeds.com
• designerdoginfo.wordpress.com
• puppiesndogs.com
• dogdisease.info
• petguide.com
• dogzone.com
• allthingsdogs.com
• teacupdogdaily.com
• thedogsjournal.com

Cavalryman (talk) 11:10, 26 May 2020 (UTC).

And more today:

• dogable.net
• topdogtips.com
• sittersforcritters.com
• pets4homes.co.uk
• retrieverbud.com
• canna-pet.com
• k9rl.com
• mixbreeddog.com
• iams.com
• leashesandlovers.com
• puppydogweb.com
• thegoodypet.com

Cavalryman (talk) 01:34, 27 May 2020 (UTC).

And a few more:

• dogpage.us
• puppiesclub.com
• puppy-basics.com

Cavalryman (talk) 06:21, 1 June 2020 (UTC)

Some more today:

• animalso.com
• europetnet.com
• russiandog.net

Cavalryman (talk) 23:29, 17 June 2020 (UTC)

I would like to add another that I assumed was already here:

• molosserdogs.com

Cavalryman (talk) 23:26, 13 October 2020 (UTC).

A couple more:

• dogipedia.ru
• dogsglobal.com

Cavalryman (talk) 07:47, 26 January 2021 (UTC).

Consolidated list

Please see the main list at Wikipedia:WikiProject Dogs/Reliable sources for potential updates. We should probably make a more prominent link to that page. Atsme 💬 📧 16:10, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

Can Doggysaurus be added? I see it cited quite a lot yet the site itself states "All of the advice and content on this website is written from our own personal perspective of owning and caring for dogs over the last few years.", it's a few people's personal experience without any verification or scrutinising. Traumnovelle (talk) 03:39, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

• 101dogbreeds.com Y
• allthingsdogs.com Y
• animalso.com Y
• bulldoginformation.com Y
• canna-pet.com Y
• completedogsguide.com Y
• cosmosmith.com Y
• designerdoginfo.wordpress.com Y
• dogable.net Y
• dogappy.com Y
• dogbreedplus.com Y
• dogdisease.info Y
• dogipedia.ru Y
• dogpage.us Y
• dogs.petbreeds.com Y
• dogsglobal.com Y
• dogtime.com Y
• dogzone.com Y
• europetnet.com Y
• europetnet.org
• iams.com
• k9rl.com
• leashesandlovers.com
• mastiffdogssite.com Y
• mixbreeddog.com
• molosserdogs.com Y
• pawculture.com
• perfectdogbreeds.com
• petguide.com
• petpremium.com
• pets4homes.co.uk
• puppiesclub.com
• puppiesndogs.com
• puppy-basics.com
• puppydogweb.com
• retrieverbud.com
• russiandog.net
• scamperingpaws.com
• sittersforcritters.com
• teacupdogdaily.com
• thedogsjournal.com
• thegoodypet.com
• thehappypuppysite.com Y
• thelabradorsite.com Y
• topdogtips.com Y
• vetstreet.com Y (for dogs only)
• yourpurebredpuppy.com Y

Discussion

Have started to remove from articles, will tick as complete. This will likely require review again. Cavalryman (talk) 22:23, 14 October 2020 (UTC).

I've forgotten if or how we agreed to actually go about this, would some kind soul remind me (preferably in words of about one syllable or fewer). Anyway, here are three that I've just removed from Chihuahua:

• www.chihuahuawardrobe.com
• k9carts.com
• dogcare.dailypuppy.com ("Come to DailyPuppy.com for your fix of the cutest furbabies of every breed")

Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 21:19, 16 May 2021 (UTC)

A couple of "good websites"

I would like to propose two websites containing a number of very informative articles as "good sources":

• Charwynne Dog Features (davidhancockondogs.com), and
• Ria Hörter (riahorter.com).

Both authors have been published widely in dog publications and Hancock in particular has a number of published books on dogs. Both websites contain a number of articles, most of which have previously been published in magazines but some may not have been. I think both meet the criteria under WP:RSSELF as "produced by an established expert on the subject matter, whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable, independent publications". Cavalryman (talk) 22:59, 13 October 2020 (UTC).

At davidhancockondogs.com, the pix to the right - a man out of my own heart! William Harris (talk) 10:42, 14 October 2020 (UTC)

Formerly of The Light Infantry, I have most of his books although I would really like a copy of The mastiffs but it is well out of print and around £150 online, there is a transcript on his website though. Cavalryman (talk) 22:07, 14 October 2020 (UTC).

Now I am lost in sources, the websites you have listed mainly contain printed information and most of the popular web resources are listed in "bad sources", kennel club websites that seem to have reliable information cannot be used as primary sources... Could you please give examples of dog-related web resources that would be considered suitable?--LoraxJr 22:09, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

I suggest you read WP:SPS and then WP:USINGSPS, basically if it has not been produced by an author who has previously demonstrated expertise in the field, or a publisher with a good reputation for robust editorial oversight and fact checking, then it's pretty safe to assume it's self-published. Most of the "popular web resources" are content farms, and when you scrutinise them closely you realise often Wikipedia is their starting point, we don't site ourselves.

The "good websites" above contain a series of articles written by two authors who are expert dog writers, both have previously been very widely published in a number of reputable publications from very good publishers and all of the articles on their websites are transcripts of articles that have been published in such publications, that's why they are suitable for use as sources. Cavalryman (talk) 22:38, 26 January 2021 (UTC).

Ok, that makes clearer on one side and much harder to find sources on the other. This rule is the equally applicable to sources in other languages too? LoraxJr 11:55, 27 January 2021 (UTC)

Yes it is applicable to sources in all languages, and yes it can be difficult to find sources. This is why large tracts of text and even occasionally articles are deleted as they are not cited to reliable sources. Cavalryman (talk) 12:13, 27 January 2021 (UTC).

As a note, you can permanently prevent those mylittlepuppy.com not-sources from being added to articles at WP:BLACKLIST. It's a bit of an extreme measure though, so only use if if there's a problem with a site being persistently added. --SilverTiger12 (talk) 01:27, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

AKC breed specs not in info boxes?

it has been a while – – many years – – since I originally set up info boxes or worked on any dog breed pages. But I'm stunned to see that the info boxes have only the British kennel club and the European FCI breed standards listed? What happened to the AKC standards? Just looking for info. Thanks. Elf | Talk 23:47, 8 July 2026 (UTC)

Hello Elf, lovely to see you.

We had a discussion a number of years ago and decided to amend the infobox to link only to the FCI and the breed standard from the officially recognised kennel club of the breed's country of origin (from memory the infobox was previously very anglophobic, less the FCI it only included six kennel clubs from five English speaking countries).

To see the British KC in an infobox, you must have been looking at a British breed's article. All American breeds that are recognised by the AKC should link to the AKC breed standard in the infobox (some examples: Alaskan Malamute, American Cocker Spaniel, American Foxhound & Chesapeake Bay Retriever).

Kind regards, Cavalryman (talk) 16:09, 9 July 2026 (UTC).

thanks for the info and update. Elf | Talk 23:24, 30 September 2026 (UTC)

Discussion potentially of interest to this project

Please see Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Agriculture#Red links in breed navboxes?. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 13:08, 9 September 2026 (UTC)

Odis (Odessa Domestic Ideal Dog)

Hello. I tried unsuccessfully to create an article about the Odis a popular Ukrainian dog breed recognized by the national dog club. I would therefore like to ask experienced contributors to create this article; I would gladly help expand it. Many thanks. ~2026-52148-55 (talk) 08:02, 29 September 2026 (UTC)

"Rat terrier" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Rat terrier to the article Rat Terrier has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2026 October 6 § Rat terrier until a consensus is reached.  — sbb (talk) 22:07, 6 October 2026 (UTC)

Requested move at Talk:Mallorquín § Requested move 5 October 2026

An editor has requested that Mallorquín be moved to Mallorquín (horse), which may be of interest to this WikiProject. You are invited to participate in the move discussion. —Myceteae‍🍄‍🟫 (talk) 11:54, 11 October 2026 (UTC)
(Notification provided by Move+)

RFC for Dog new section

I started an RFC at Talk:Dog#RFC on lead image. Please join. Wolverine X-eye (talk) 10:35, 24 October 2026 (UTC)