Changing a dog's name?

[TabulaRasa]

Shouldn't be a problem. We recently adopted a shelter dog who had been given the same name as my nephew and one of my students, so we changed it. I felt that the name didn't suit him, anyway. There are recommendations that you use both names for a little while, but honestly, we didn't bother...we just started right in using the name we chose, and pairing it with lots of bonding time and affection, using the new name lots. He immediately began responding to it. Many dogs attach more to an affectionate tone of voice and lots of attention than whatever name's being said, anyway.

[Mattie]

Well we won't get a chance to change Beanie to anything, because our current Lab took a complete dislike of her at the meeting. I'm not sure why, as my dog is around lots of other dogs regularly. All I can think of is that the new Lab, although only a puppy, already towered over my Lab. Neither dog backed down at all, and it ended badly with my dog biting the lip of the other.

I think we need to look for a smaller, more submissive playmate.

[J'aimeDesVilles]

Originally Posted by bigcats

I never knew my dog's old name, because she was abandoned in a box with no information.

She caught on to "Nelly" very quickly.

I think that the fact that it's a new person calling her the new name probably helps. It's like "Hey, it's that new lady who is nice to me. She always says "Brownie" when she wants my attention!"

Sometimes I wonder about her old name, but she doesn't seem to care about it a bit.

I concur completely. Our beagle was a stray that found us when she was about two years old. We had no idea what her name was but we named her Bailey and she learned it almost immediately. Who knows maybe that was her original name or maybe it was something that sounded like Bailey. And yes we also wonder what her original name was.

[DawnMTL]

Originally Posted by Mattie

Well we won't get a chance to change Beanie to anything, because our current Lab took a complete dislike of her at the meeting. I'm not sure why, as my dog is around lots of other dogs regularly. All I can think of is that the new Lab, although only a puppy, already towered over my Lab. Neither dog backed down at all, and it ended badly with my dog biting the lip of the other.

I think we need to look for a smaller, more submissive playmate.

Awww! I'm so sorry to hear that. That's really too bad.

[s0nginmyheart]

It was suggested to us by our last rescue that it's probably easier if you kept a similar sounding name...

We changed our dog's names from:
Gizmo to Bristow
Phoebe to Kylie

[MAtheBanker]

My dog was named Rusty at the shelter (he was a stray, they didn't know his original name), but I renamed him Beesley (I love The Office!). He took to it really fast. I call him Beezer and Dogger now, too...he loves it

[PitBullMommie1206]

Originally Posted by Mattie

We are going to see a 9 month old lab tomorrow, and hopefully adopting her.
We know the dog's name, but would like to change it. I am thinking the easiest way might be to just use both names for a bit, such as "Lassie-Socks", and gradually dropping the original name.

Has anybody had any experience with this?

We had to do the same thing with 2 of our 3 APBTs. Our first APBT we bought from a breeder when he was 8 weeks old. The breeder had to give him a name I guess to get his papers? Something like that. And they were calling him Taz. We decided that Brooklyn fit him much better, so that's what we started calling him. Within a few days he already knew his name was Brooklyn. He was so smart though! It amazed me! Within a week, maybe 2 tops, he was completely housebroken, knew basic commands, knew to stay out of the kitchen, etc! Hands down the most intelligent dog I've ever owned!

With our 2nd APBT, she didn't have a name yet. We named her Destiny and she picked up on it almost as quickly as Brooklyn picked up on his name. The dog that I thought might take longer to learn their name was our 3rd APBT, Jayda. We rescued her from our neighbors after they had left her chained up on their back porch and just moved out! She had obviously been abused, she was so scared of everyone! My husband had to take Brooklyn and Destiny for a walk while I tried for over an hour to get poor Jayda to come into our house! She was nothing but skin and bones and every little movement, noise, anything, scared her to the point where she would lay down, roll over on her back, tuck her tail, and pee all over herself! It was heartbreaking to watch her! Anyway, because she was already 7 1/2 months old when we got her, not to mention absolutely traumatized, we didn't think she would do much of anything for a while, much less be able to learn a new name! Turns out, with a lot of love and attention, a lot of good-quality food and exercise, she started to get over whatever those horrible guys had put her through! And a lot quicker than we expected! Also, like I said, we named her Jayda, and her name was Tiki , and really within a week or so, she seemed to know that Jayda was her name now. She would come to you if you called her, etc.

So yeah, all that being said, with all of our dogs, we just started calling them their new names right away, and all the time. I can't say for sure, but if you tack a dogs new name on to their old name and call them that, that's what they will get use to and that's what they will respond to. Then, when you drop their old name and just use the new one, they will have to learn their name all over again. Or at least that's what I would think anyway. However, we use to call Destiny "Desy" and she responded to both, and Brooklyn would be "Brook" sometimes, and he also responded to both. So, I don't know? I would just suggest you just start using the name that you chose for your pup right away, and I think you'll be surprised at how quickly dogs learn their names.

Good luck with your new fur-baby!