What do you do when....???

So many people approach me and tell me what a lovely Burmese Mountain Dog I have. I usually try to educate them in a sort of backwards way replying that this breed comes from BERNE, Switzerland. Most thank me for the info, but some get very offended. Should I just keep my mouth shut? What do you do when someone mispronounces your breeds name?

Why not correct them politely ???

If people ask me 'Is that a Pap-ill-ion?' (the usual way people mispronounce it) I'll typically reply 'Yep, she's a pap-ee-awn!' I mean I know what they mean and it's much better than being asked repeatedly about my chihuahua. So far no one has really seemed offended or anything. *shrug*

I agree with Laurelin. I don't think that telling them where the dog is from is really going to help them make the connection that they're pronouncing it wrong. Personally, I'd be thrilled that someone almost knows that my dog is a berneese, and not some hound mix or something.

I think educating is good, very good

I'd just tell them how it's actually pronounced in a nice way. People call Tollers Trollers all the time, and I just politely tell them that they're actually Tollers, and what the word "toll" means and why they're called that. I've never had an offended reaction -- usually people either just don't get it and call them Trollers anyway, or they're very happy I educated them.

Or, I'll do the same as Laurelin if they ask "is that a Troller?" and I then say, "yes she is a Toller". Same thing when people comment on my "Dovermins", haha.

I think it's almost always better to try and educate people, and if the reaction you get isn't a good one, oh well. That's their problem.

I would do the "yes he is a Bernese Mountain Dog" thing, that way the people don't feel as stupid because they think you didn't notice and actually thought they had said it right.

Or you could tell them it has something to do with Burma Shave.

I just polietly tell them.

Ruckus is not a collie, border collie, aussie, or a WOLF hybrid.....
he is a sheltie.
And Lynn it not a collie, she is a sheltie.
people love to call them miniature collies, and even argue with me when I tell them that they are shelties. LOL

I don't have that problem with the dogs, but I do with the horses. I tell people I have Belgian draft horses, and all the time I get"Oh I love BELGIUMS"! I don't have a problem correcting by flat out saying "Belgians, not Belgiums". They don't know unless you say, and even still sometimes it dosn't get through.

People always say Striders breed (or assumed breed) with a question mark at the end, so it's easy to correct them without ruffling feathers. Most are interested in pronouncing it right and ask how to spell it, but then the northwest has awesome people like that.

People always pronounce my mom's breed of choice wrong. It's always "Key-shawnd" or "Keys-hound."

OR they'll say, "oh my god is that a baby akita?????!!!!!"

Anyway, she usually finds a way to slip the correct pronounciation into the mix, "Oh, she's such a good girl. How did you learn about "Kayz-hounds?"

I think I heard that keeshonden (kayz-hond-en) have the most mispronounced name in the AKC. Wouldn't surprise me.

I am officially embarrassed, as I learned from your post that I have been pronouncing it wrong all this time.

I have done that....and I know better. Burmese just rolls off the tongue so easy. As a World Geography teacher I am just a lot more used to the word Burmese.

I wouldn't get mad if you corrected me though....I would feel kinda dumb because I know better but I would get mad.

I always feel for the Rottie people here . . . their dogs are "Rockwilders."

And then there's Kharma's breed . . . People ask, may guess at Bull Mastiff or Bloodhound or even Great Dane or more usually "some kinda bigass hound," and then when I tell them she's a Fila Brasileiro, about half the time they'll say, "yeah, like I said, Bigass Hound."

Grrrrr . . . . But, what do I know about dogs, I'm just a stupid woman, anyway. opcorn:

The Pap ill ion thing irritates the hell out of me too!

I had someone come up to me on Sunday and ask if Ben was a Pap ill ion and when I told him he was in fact a Papillon he claimed to have one that he got from the SPCA. Very doubtful seeing as there are only 32 in South Africa.

He THEN told me that his was one of the big ones though. He fetched a very obvious Pom/Terrier mix from the car and explained how the large ones were in fact, like poodles, the the standard and Ben was a toy.

By that stage I lost my temper and told him to bugger off. It didn't help that I witnessed him slam his car door into another car and not even slow down to check if there was damage. Then he has the cheek to try and tell me his mix is in the same breed catergory as my show winner. (I was feeling very snobby that day! LOL)

I've corrected my mother time and time again and she STILL says BurMese. She knows that's not how you say it, but she can't help it. It just easily slides out before she can stop herself.


For the longest time I never said "Brussels Griffon" out loud because I was CONVINCED it was somehow NOT pronounced the way it is spelled and I would sound like an idiot. One day I watched a dog show on Animal Planet and realized I had it right the whole time. :lol-sign:


I've never had anyone mispronounce Papillon, it sounds funny though. They either know Oliver's a Papillon or they have no idea what he is...or they think he's a Chi.