Dunno about German but in french dogs are male or female depending on their actual gender (obviously the female word has been adopted as a slur towards women, to be fair sometimes the masculine also is used that way for men).
Comment on why
aceshigh@lemmy.world 2 hours agoDogs are male? In Russian dogs are female. So I guess there is no standard for gendered language.
Obi@sopuli.xyz 2 hours ago
MacNCheezus@lemmy.today 1 hour ago
In German, dogs are male by default (der Hund can be used as a generic term for both male and female dogs), but bitches are female (die Hündin). Cats are female by default (die Katze), but tomcats are male (der Kater).
We do not use Hündin as a slur for women, but Hund can be used as a slur for men.
elvith@feddit.org 1 hour ago
German has both genders for dogs, but since the variants look (and sound) slightly different, it’s not instantly obvious:
Der Hund - a male dog
Die Hündin - a female dog
SmoothLiquidation@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
It is said that when English went from old English (which was gendered) to modern English, part of the problem was that the genders of the Germanic roots didn’t match the genders of the French influences so the people chose to just skip it all together.