Due to the lack of unified naming standards for breed names among kennel clubs, it will be difficult for users to finding the according information for a given breed. During data integration, iDog proposed a basic naming standard to formalize breed names, which will alleviate this problem.
iDog provides a new name of the breed accordingly, at the same time, the source name will also be given on our website. The rules are described as follows.
Each breed will be assigned a unique number such as CB1, CB2, where CB represents Canine Breed.
1) The formatted breed name should be consist of characters. Multiple words should be split by white space. Each word should start with an uppercase letter, unless the words are German such as starting with “de” or “du”.
2) The formatted breed name should not contain the character “&”, and needs to be transformed to "and".
3) For the breed name that are not in English, the translated English name will be added to the formatted name in brackets, for example, Slovensky Kopov (Slovakian Hound).
4) The formatted breed name should have a common name and alternative names. Alternative names can be the breed name called in different languages.
5) The formatted breed name can contain country/region, such as American, Chinese. To avoid confusion, iDog will attempt to add on the origin of country/region to the name.
6) The formatted breed name can contain body characteristics or breed category, such as wirehaired, flat haired, sheep dog. Standards for several body characteristic words are listed below.
| Standard Body Hair Characteristics | Need be Standardized |
|---|---|
| Wire-Haired | Wire, Wire-haired, Wirehaired, Coarse-Haired, Coarse Haired, Rough-Haired, Rough Haired, Rough |
| Smooth-Haired | Smooth Coat, Smooth, Smooth-haired |
| Long-Haired | Long-haired, Longhaired |
| Short-Haired | Shorthaired, Short-haired |
| Curly-Coated | Curly-coated, curly coat |
| Flat-Coated | Flat-coated, Flat coat |
| Soft-Coated | Soft Coat, Soft coat, Soft |
| Long-Coated | Long Coat, Long coat |
| Short-Coated | Short Coat, Short coat |
| Shepherd Dog | Shepherd, Sheepdog |
7) The order of the formatted breed name should be body size (e.g. standard/miniature/great), country/region name, body color (e.g. Black and Tan), body characteristics or body hair characteristics, and breed category (e.g. "Austrian Black and Tan Hound", "Standard Long-Haired Dachshund").