What’s In A Name?
There was a funny article on USATODAY.com about giving our dogs nicknames. The article written by Sharon Peters, an award-winning pet journalist, discusses how dogs used to only go by one name.
They were given their proper name, such as Spot, and that’s what they were called. The chosen name was a traditional name such as Rover, Fido, or Patch.
Today anything goes, dogs are given human names or even named after places. Max, Sam, Jack, Jake, Lucy, Montana, and Dakota are commonplace today. It’s hard to tell if these are children at preschool or dogs at a park.
Most importantly, people aren’t just calling their dogs by the given name, they have nicknames too. Some have numerous nicknames, just take a look through some of the Dogster profiles. Our dog Bo is aka BoBo, BoBo Buddy, Buddy, and the oh so popular “Bo, no!”
The question that Sharon Peters’ brings up, will dogs come to their nicknames, like they do to their given name. Do they really understand more than one name? To get an answer she turned to trainer/animal behavior consultant Lee Livingood.
Trainer/animal behavior consultant Lee Livingood, a woman respected in her field – a rock-solid sort who seems almost constitutionally incapable of goofy flights of whimsy, even when it comes to animals, which she clearly holds in the highest regard.
Without the slightest snicker or hesitation, she responded to the “can they?” question. “Yes. Absolutely. If you’ve used it often enough to create an association with the name that makes it relevant, certainly.”
The fact is, she says, dogs make associations all the time, like those that have learned that when you pick up the car keys, there’s some chance that a car ride is possible, and they leap and pant like crazed coyotes.
So if you use the nickname often enough in ways they recognize apply to them – you give them a treat or pat them on the head as you’re saying it, or tell them it’s time for a walk – they remember it and add it to their personal list of AKAs.
They will not, on the other hand, make special note of other oft-repeated words, like, well, invectives that might get repeated 30 or 40 times a day around your house, since you’re clearly not looking at him or praising him or drawing him in. Just so you know.
Is there a limit to the number of nicknames a dog can learn? Well, “that probably varies from dog to dog; some dogs generalize a lot faster than others.” That’s polite dog-trainer talk for some dogs are smart and some are dim bulbs, and the latter probably won’t learn multiple nicknames very quickly.
How many Dogsters have nicknames? Give me a bark, share a few.
I was named Stator by my dad, A “stator” is a part on a motorcycle…My older (rip) brother was named Evo for the Harley Davidson engine…..Well mom was never crazy about the name dad gave me so she calls me “Fatboy” most of the time, Not because I am fat but it is also a type of Harley.
I will respond to both!
Indy has several nicknames. He answers to indy, indiana, whippet, skinny, and HEY! if need be. The newest member of the family Harlie has affectionately picked up the name shark b/c of her passion for food. She will respond to shark as well as harlie.
My poor dogs . . . I call them everything and anything that comes to ind. They still respond to their given names and are beginning to respond to the most used nicks as well. They male’s name is Tigger but I call him, Tig, Dogo, Blogo, Bongo, Boggie. The girl’s official name is Olive and she has it rough. She can be: the Beaver, Bib, Bibi, Pinky, Poppeta, Piper and Stinker-Bell, among others.
It was the same thing with my sisters when we were growing up. A new nick name would pop out of my head every two weeks or so.
I have numerous names for most of my babies, Squirt a.k.a. squirtlin bratinski fartbutt, Buddy a.k.a., buddy lovebug boo, Twiggy or twiggles, Gina or gina beana, Gomer or gomer pyle gump or gomer gump. Thats a few of them.
I have several nick names for Agnes. Most frequently I’ll call her “baby girl” or “Aggie Maggie”. She likes them all as long as she is getting petted, ears scratched, a treat, etc. She is SOOO spoiled.
My dog Bandit is called Banders or Banderboo and sometimes rat (it’s actually an affectionate nickname!). My dog Zeus is called Zeusie or Zeusers.
Wade and Lexie also have a lot of nicknames. Wade aka Wader Tater, Tater, Tater Tot, Tot, Tate….. Lexie aka Lexie Lou, Lou, Lexie Lubner… Even Thomas the cat is Tom, Tommy, Tommy Tu-Tone…
We have an 11 year old black lab mix named Jack who we adopted 6 years ago from our local Animal Orphanage. Since my husbands name is Jack also whenever I call “Jack” both answer…so I started calling our dog Rickie…or Ricardo Montalbam, or Rickie Ricardo even Rick O’Shay…he answers to all of them. I even still call him Jack a couple of times a day when my husband is at work.
Jack’s Mom
Buddy’s most common nicknames are: Buddha and Bear
Bear is also called Bubba because he turned out to be a bubba more than a bear. I also call him bubba bear. He knows when he is in trouble if I use the whole tittle bubba bear lyons.
Copper is aka Copy or Copy Cat (Because he some times acts like a cats. He rubs up on peoples legs just like a cat)
Lady will respond to Lady & Lady Girl, but the other nicknames I have for her, she will not respond to them. Screech- Screechers, Screechy Boy, Screech.. Dotty- yeah no, she won’t respond to anything… LOL
My female Akita Inu *Koda* has several nicknames like: Koko, Dogzilla, and Crazy Dog. (Seeing as she’s a very large dog that jumps, wiggles and acts like a Jack Russel Terrier/ goofy; she’s like a giant puppy) Koda’s mother’s name was Cocopuff, so calling her Koko has some signifigance…
My dog’s given name is Zackintosh. I hardly ever use it, most often I call him Zack. But he also is known by (And usually responds to) Z, Zster, Super Z, Puplet, Pupperoni, Pup, Pupperoni stick, Zackie, Zackie-poo, Zackaroni, and Dog. He usually comes running if I let the word “Peanut Butter”, or “Walk” slip. Poor guy! I usually just use his full name when he’s in trouble, I say “Zackintosh CJ!!” LOL, our poor dogs!
The Beagle is Amelia Earhart, Amelia Bedilia, Mia, Millie, Lia, Mimi , Me me, snuggle bug, bug, silly dog, When she’s in trouble it’s Beeeeeeeeeagle’. or you better watch your little Beagle B–T!
Having 22 furbabies we have lots of names plus nick names. Isabella is bella , Issie and stinking feet. Cooper is coopdeville,pooperscooper and Coop. Annie is my Anniebananie ,Annienan and afew we cannot mention because she is my wildchild. Campbell is Cam. Cooper is named after Anderson Cooper and Campbell is after Campbell Browm.Hey Im a news freak.All my furkids know there names and thier nicknames .:
Sunshine=Sunnygirl=Sunny1=Darlingestdarlin= sweetbabydarlin.
Wings=Wingding=Dingbat=Dingdong
Widget-Widget-ee-Woo=Little Girl
Big John=BJ=Big Guy
Spot=Spotinator=Spotsky
Betty=Boop=BooBoopAdoo=BunnyButt
Millie’s too new for a nickname, and Sammy is too weird.
and that’s the whole gang
I named Cinder, Cinder because she is so dark and I didn’t want a common name for the color black.. I was looking at something with Crayola Crayons and “Cinder Black” was a new color you could vote for.. So Cinder Black was born
Everbody always asks where it came from 
My golden retriever Jack has a few nicknames…Mostly it’s JackJack, Jackie boy, baby boy, and Jack Ass (in a loving way) He comes to all of them and he recently started coming when I call him butthead. He’s a goofy dog so he gets new nicknames alot.
I have a border collie/ black lab mix named Joy & a german shepard named Ariel. My family & I call Joy Happy Yappy because she likes to talk, especially when my family & I go out to run errands & when we get home, she tells us off wondering why we didn’t take her & Ariel with us on the errands. When it comes to Ariel, my family & I call her Lil’ R because she was named after a dog we use to have that passed away on Dec. 16, 2003, she was also named Ariel, & she was a german shepard/ black lab mix.
We’ve always had nicknames for all of our pups. But, probably our Beagle puppy is the one who responds the best to all of them. Her name is Shelby2 but I have called her Muttley or Mutt from the day we brought her home. She also goes by “Puppy” (she’s 2 now, but she’ll always be my puppy), “2″, “Shel-Shel”, “Shelbers”, and, of course, “Monster”. Our basset (Stacey) used to respond better to “Roo-roo” than her real name. Unless you were very frustrated with her (typical basset owner response), then it was “Stacey MARIE”!!!!
My dog shih-poo Annabelle gets called everything under the sun: Nana, Nanny (the most frequent), Nanner, Nanner-belle, Stinky, Stinky McPete, Stinky McGee, Belly, Banana-belle, Sweet Pea. The lab Buddy also has a million names: BooBoo, NubNub, Boudreaux, BudBud, Buddylicious, just to name a few. It’s a wonder they come when they’re called.
when my mommy really reaches the boiling point, she only has to say ‘baby’ and i quit my nonsense and curl up in her arms.