We are picking up a rescue dog on Sunday, but I am not keen on the name he has. He has only had this name for a month since being found as a stray but responds to it. Can I change it again or will it cause too much confusion to the mut and slow down his settling in?

not being an expert but i would let him settle in then slowly change his name to a nickname you like which is close to the original name. My dog is 11 now and has at least 5 names but he responds to them all, especially as he knows it will probably benefit him!

Call him by old name followed by new name, after a while new name/old name. Gradually drop old name. Reward when he responds. Its just a noise to the dog, like a whistle.

We’ve had 3 rescue GSDs over the years that arrived with awful names, dogs cope far better with changes than humans.

If you start straight away with what you want to call the the dog along with good boy/girl then it’ll soon get used to it.

We seriously considered changing our dogs name so we could use his name for one of the kids. We decided that for best results something as close to his name as possible would be best and going from Murray to Worry seemed strangely appropriate for a 2yr old Bedlington who had a habit of causing us stress e.g. eating dark chocolate, being kidnapped by the local ‘crazy’etc. In the end we decided it was more hassle than it was worth and called no. 2 son Artair.

What brain flex says…it’s just noise to him.

You can teach him to sit on command, just as you can teach him to come to you if you start calling him Dave.

Changed ours from the first day, never been a problem.

We seriously considered changing our dogs name so we could use his name for one of the kids. We decided that for best results something as close to his name as possible would be best and going from Murray to Worry seemed strangely appropriate for a 2yr old Bedlington who had a habit of causing us stress e.g. eating dark chocolate, being kidnapped by the local ‘crazy’etc. In the end we decided it was more hassle than it was worth and called no. 2 son Artair.

Our neighbours have a son called Arius and a dog called Marius 🙄

Oli – we ended up calling our son something different as our rescue dog came with our preferred name!

Our dog just seems to respond to the first sound i.e. Alf…even though we call him Alf, Alfie, Alfred or Alfredo

All dogs answer to the default name ‘Biscuits’. Just use that.

This is Toby

otherwise answers to Tobes, Oi, Fuc$wit, Cretin or any combination of the above.

It’s the intonation of the voice that he answers to rather than the correct pronunciation, however if he sees a Rat, Cat, Rabbit, Fox or Deer then there’s not much chance of a response till he’s satisfied that the prey is either out of range, or he’s broke it’s neck or it’s a total lost cause to chase.

Brainflex is pretty spot on. Old cue, new cue.

His name is a cue, which is a prompt to pay attention to whoever is saying the word.

Simple way to change his name, is not to. Just decide that the new cue is his new name, let’s say for us it’s ‘biscuits’.

1. Get a handful of treats, and give him six individual treats with a 10 second wait between each treat.

2. Now dont give him a treat, and look ahead. He’ll look at you, or you hand, most likely your hand first. When he looks at *you*, give him a treat.

Repeat for number 2 for 6 times.

3. Now wait again, as before, but now say his new name – ‘Biscuits!’ (High pitched works best) wait until he looks towards you, then hand him a treat.

Keep repeating number 3 a few times, and stop before he’s bored or tired, end on a high. Leave him wanting more.

If he falters, and doesn’t look at you, go back to number 1. He’s not ready yet.

Do this a few times a day, and he’ll get his name very quickly.

It’s not a name to him, its a cue that something very exciting and awesome is about to happen. 🙂

Once youve taught this, recall is easy peasy.

Note: I’ve been training dogs for years, and was very close to setting up a training school – drop me a mail if you want any questions answered 🙂

Dogs don’t speak English. Call him what you want he’ll get the hang of it.

Suck it and see. We picked up a rescue from the dogs trust – they’d had him for two months and he’d been re-homed twice. His name was Bert which didn’t suit him at all. Took him home, renamed him Kasper and never gave it a second thought.

Don’t over-think it.

It’s the intonation of the voice that he answers to rather than the correct pronunciation, however if he sees a Rat, Cat, Rabbit, Fox or Deer then there’s not much chance of a response till he’s satisfied that the prey is either out of range, or he’s broke it’s neck or it’s a total lost cause to chase.

Without opening a can of worms too much…

This is why teaching a strong understanding of the name cue, and the recall cue at a very young age is absolutely key. If you only do two things in your dog’s life, these two are the ones.

I won’t bombard you with too much, but remember not to say your dog’s name when you *know* he won’t respond. This will reinforce that his name means ‘carry on doing what you like, maybe come back if you haven’t anything more interesting to do’.

Always call your dog when you know he’ll come back, when you first start out.

Most handlers get this wrong, his name is important, as is your recall cue.

You don’t need to train a dog not to chase something, *if* he will respond to his name and a recall over anything else.

With older dogs, its a bit more tricky, but just takes patience and perseverance.

Unless he’s called after the dog in the Dambusters film, get over yourself.

Keep his original name.

I won’t bombard you with too much, but remember not to say your dog’s name when you *know* he won’t respond. This will reinforce that his name means ‘carry on doing what you like, maybe come back if you haven’t anything more interesting to do’.

Fenton, Fenton, FENTON, Jesus Christ etc.

You don’t need to train a dog not to chase something, *if* he will respond to his name and a recall over anything else.

Ever met a lurcher?

Yep.

Training owners is much harder than training dogs

Dogs are stupid.

line three up on the other side of the room, shout ‘yo, dug*!’and slap your leg.. they will all come running.

*translation: Dug.. deb’mshure speak for ‘dog’

My rescue was called Tyrone and is now Terry no problems. Unfortunately it was my third choice name after Doug and Stay.

So you reckon you could reliably train a lurcher not to chase things. Good luck with that. Its like asking a lab not to pick stuff up or a spaniel not to hunt up. The only lurchers I’ve seen that wont chase a bolting rabbit are ones that kill an awful lot of rabbits.