Yes of course it is; however I was editing a book; and grammar rules as well as style guidance can help make writing better.That's my job, to make the writing not get in the way of the story.

I am also accustomed to using the "down style" and not capping dog breeds except when a proper noun is present (German short-haired pointer). But here's my problem: Rottweiler or rottweiler? Merriam-Webster shows it not capped, but then explains the dogs hail from a city in Germany: Rottweil. Okay, so we'd cap Bostonian, wouldn't we? Why not Rottweiler? That's gotten me to thinking about the issue of "speciesism." I know, I know. But why not just cap them all -- out of *respect* -- like we do countries, tribes, teams, gangs for pete's sake? The sentence I'm editing looks silly: Labs, goldens, Dalmatians, rottweilers. I'm going to have a hard time justifying this to the author, with good reason. Chicago's wrong here, I think. Can anyone make me feel better?