Naming your dog - A Guide

With an endless list of possibilities, it can be a pain to narrow down to just one name for your canine companion. 

This can especially be a challenge for first-time dog owners. Here is a useful guide of things you should take into consideration before choosing a title for your pooch!

Keep it simple

Dogs are more likely to understand short and simple consonants, these have a more prominent and sharper reaction when people hear it. Ending in vowel sounds also have a good impact with dogs and they are more likely to recognise it ‘Charlie’ ‘Simba’, ‘Fido’ etc.

Avoid confusion

Try not to give your name which you may mix up with a command that you want to teach during dog training, for example if you name it ‘Kit’ then it may mistake it for ‘Sit’. It’s going to cause unnecessary confusion in your dog’s brain. After all, your dog can’t spell it doesn’t actually know what you are staying, it just recognises the frequency and the sound of the spoken word. Make it easy!

Choose something sensible...ish!

Remember that you will be using your dog’s name in public, so try to make sure that it’s a name that you will feel comfortable shouting out on regular basis when out on a walk. If you’re in the park and have to shout ‘Death’ to get your dog back, you might get some funny looks. Although you might think it’s pretty funny or cool, we do recommend you be responsible. Also if your dog ever goes missing and you have to walk through the streets shouting his name you want to be sounding something a bit safer.

Try before you commit

Try out your dog’s name for a few days before you commit to it, if it doesn’t respond too well or feel right then you might want to change it. If saying the name over and over doesn’t fit right, you can just pick a new one.

Consider the dog

If renaming an older or rehomed dog then it would be best to choose a name which sounds similar to the dog’s previous name. This way the dog is going to feel as if nothing’s changed in that respect, while it will already have a lot of changes in lifestyle to get used to.

You could look at your dog’s physicality for inspiration on how to name it. If it’s brown you could name it ‘Chocolate’, if white then you could call it ‘snowflake’. I personally like to name dogs after my favourite TV show and Movie characters, why not draw from your interests?

After a little bit of consideration, I’m sure that you will find the perfect name for your new pooch.

Good luck