Changing Names

I received a question the other day-- in my mail box-- about changing animals names. One woman was adopting a dog, she wondered if it would be wrong to change the dog's name to something else?

Some people had told her that it could give the dog some kind of psychological difficulty in the future. On that issue, my answer was; “Dogs don’t become permanently marked by you changing their name, it is the human that can make them permanently marked.”

When I adopted Tjojs 12 years ago her name was Blackie. I didn’t like it, it was too masculine on a very feminine dog. But I could see why the former owner had named her Blackie, she is Black! I re-named her and it didn’t matter what I called her she didn’t listen! So many different people had called and yelled at her, so to be able to survive, she shut down—just like children and humans (even husbands ha ha) But after a time she learned and understood that she would stay with me—I promised her that out loud—It took 8 months before she wagged her tail out off happiness (I thought it was broken at first)

We adopted a new dog that was named Speedy by the shelter where she had stayed over a year. We disliked the name, too masculine for a very petite lady, among other reasons. Today her name is Capri!

Same here, she doesn’t listen to her name, but after one year in a shelter who would know what his or her name was?

Look at every dog individually. Old dogs were you can see the dog loves his name since he loved his owner so much, you probably don't want to change the name. Maybe the owner died and the dog is re-homed, maybe confused and grieving, there I would not change a name. That’s also out of respect to the owner and the pack.

If you got your dog from a breeder, you are probably "safe" adding a new name to your dog's existing name, or renaming him completely. They likely have many dogs and different names so the dogs (assuming) haven’t learned their names yet.

With our yellow Labrador puppy we recently adopted, we took his "existing" name, and added to it. His name on his papers is Romeo, so we added Trooper. Of course, all he hears is "Trooper" around the house, and he seems to be responding to it. But then again, he is young and was in a kennel for over 3 months, and likely wasn't called much of anything. So, he is nearly a clean slate.

As in most things with your four-legged companion, use and trust your intuition. Take it as it is, enjoy together and feel if the name is right for you and your dog. You'll know in your heart if it is.

That is Amore and I wouldn’t want to change that name!