Paper talk!

A friend of mine was featured in a newspaper this week with her wonderful assistance dog. It's an inspiring story of how a dog and a person can work together in partnership.

I just wish I could get my head around some of the phraseology though, it always seems to be the same, and rather detracts from the story.

Take the headline for example, the assistance dog is called a pet, which as he is a working dog is rather an insult. Pets, by and large can curl up at home while everything goes on around them, assistance dogs really earn their living. Also, the fact that the reporter used the word tricks to describe Ajs very special and highly trained tasks is rather tacky. The references to Aj as a mutt and pooch are plainly insulting.

What a shame this wonderful dog has been sold short!

I have seen this happen before and have asked a couple of reporters why they do it ... "it's what sells" or some close variation is usually the answer. Are the newspaper reading public really that out of touch that they cannot understand "working dog" instead of mutt and pooch?