Before adopting a dog it is necessary to reconsider it for a moment. If you spend very short time at home every day there is reason to keep a dog shut-in inside your house or your apartment waiting for you to come back from work. A dog needs a family and friends to play with it, a lot of love and attention; it needs a daily walk and discipline that a person with more time will be able to give it. If have considered the responsibility that implies having a dog and you think that you will be able to give it what it needs, then you can start by choosing a proper name.
When you get to see for the very first time your new puppy, you are able to choose the proper name for it according to its characteristics and personality. This is going to be one of the most important steps in your relationship, the new name will have incidence on its behavior and learning process in the future. Dogs respond to their name when they are called by their owner, therefore the most experimented trainers of dogs recommend the selection of a name with one or two syllables at most.
If you are adopting a grown up doggy, although it may be a little bit difficult to change its name, it is worth to try, you’ll see puppies that are given in adoption are regularly needing a new and better life, the old name of the dog could be associated to negative experiences from its past, and one simple way to begin to erase that past would be changing its name to something that is unrelated, by adopting this doggie you are giving it a new chance to live a better life on your side, always with enough love, attention and discipline.
At the moment of choosing the new name for the puppy, it is important for you to consider that this will be its name for the rest of the time (once you get used to a name it will be really difficult to change it), therefore it is useless to base the selection of the name on a few characteristics of your dog when it is still a puppy, names like “Tiny” or “scut” or “tobby” will not look exactly nice on a German shepherd or a St. Bernard when they get the adult phase.
As the trainers have explained, dogs are more receptive to short names, and the most recommended names are those that contain the vowels “a” and “o”. Long names aren’t practical, they difficult the reaction of the dog to an order, besides you can confuse it if you are not expressing clearly. The dog responds more to a sound instead to a meaning. He creates the associations through the training and learning, between the sounds they hear from us with specific meanings depending even of the tone.
Requirements that should be followed to choose the right name
Anyhow, you should know that whatever you choose as a name for your dog, here are some requirements that you should take into account:
The name must be short with a length of at most three syllables, in this way it will be easier for the dog to associate and remember it. But the name shouldn’t be of only one syllable because the dog can get confused.
It is not advisable to use the name of a person to name a dog.
Try to choose a name with a sound different from the words of common use, for instance a name like Bo sounds a lot like Go.
You can choose the name of your dog by taking a closer look to the characteristics of your dog. It means that the name you choose must be related to the description or temper of your dog. For instance, “Princess” is a beautiful name for a sweet and very small doggy; “Bandit” can be nice for a dog with a temper a little bit audacious. You can also take into account physical characteristics like the color of its fur can also give you some ideas about the name for your dog like “Whitey” or “Spot”.
Be creative with the names. You can get more ideas for dog names from history, cartoons, comics, mythology as Greek names for dogs, Egyptian mythology names and more.
The name that you choose for your dog, you must use it with frequency, every time you play with your pet, when you are giving it a caress and when you spend time with your dog.
Never yell its name; you must say it in a neutral or happy tone.
If you are adopting a puppy, then do not overwhelm it with too much instructions, it is like a baby which will require a lot of patience from you.
Give your dog a lot of love.
