Choosing a name for your dog

After going through the many hurdles to prepare for a dog, it is surely an exciting time when the dog finally arrives home. Everyone wants to play with them and get to welcome the new visitor. One thing that is also important to learn of is the name to choose for the dog. The choice of dog name is quite important, as it to a large extent shows the type of dog owner that you are. Some names might be appropriate for you to use indoors but when you go out to the public, you might feel embarrassed calling out the dog. 

Choosing a dog name is not as easy as it may seem. It is important to factor in several ideas so as to select the most ideal name. If you choose an ideal name that is quite common, it is highly possible that you might run into several other dogs with the same name while you are out in the public.

For the best results, ensure you go for a participatory approach when choosing the name of a dog. If the dog will be a family dog, seek input from everyone to ensure that there is consensus when the final name is chosen.

Having chosen a name, do take care when you are changing a dog’s name especially when its older. If a name must be changed for an older dog, the vowel sounds ought to be the same.  The consonants can change. The dog picks up vowel sounds easier than consonant sounds. After selecting the agreed upon dog name, do test it for a day and see the response of the dog.

It is advisable to make use of positive reinforcement whenever they respond positively to the name chosen being called out. This reinforcement can come in form or a hug, positive words or even a treat. This indicates to the dog that you are really happy and they work hard to be keen to listen to you whenever you speak.

Also, make sure the name chosen for the dog is not among the list of commands that you expect to teach it.  If you choose commands as a name for the dog such as ‘sit’ or ‘come’, confusion will reign over the dog as it will not understand on whether you need to have the action performed or you are calling it.

Your choice of name can depend on the sex of the dog. Among the most common male names for a dog include:

Bailey, Bear, Buddy, Buster, Charlie, Cody, Cooper, Duke, Harley, Jack, Jake, Lucky, Max, Murphy,Oliver, Riley, Rocky, Sam, Ticker, Toby.

On the other hand, there are numerous names for a female dog that you can try and choose from. Among the names that are included as the most popular fro the female dogs include:

Molly, Bella, Lucy, Maggie, Daisy, Sadie, Chloe, Sophie, Bailey, Zoe, Lola, Abby, Ginger, Roxy, Gracie, Coco, Sasha, Lily, Sam, Princess

You can also base the name of a dog based on a particular time, such as the day they were born or out of something they did. It all lies on what you feel most comfortable using. As earlier indicated, you can choose on the name that you feel that grows on you best after a day of use. Other ideas that you can use to choose a dog name include the appearance of the dog, personality, dogs in movies, sports teams and players and names you personally love.