18 Jan, 2020
This may seem a funny question: "Have you named you dog?", (for those that have and the dog recognises it then that is fine) but it is something that needs some thought: Is it a name that you (and your partner and family) are comfortable shouting quite loudly in a public park? When shouting it, as above, is it very clear and able to pierce through background noise? Does it have the equivalent penetration against background noise (babble) when said at conversation level when the dog is, for example at heel (close)? Words of all kinds can be divided into hard and soft sounding and generally a hard sounding and quite short name works best for preceding imperative commands. Most hard words start with a hard consonant like ‘Kim’. This name is good as it is short and can be ‘barked out’ forcefully by you, the pack leader, for an urgent command but can have a diminutive for play such as ‘Kimmy’. This also has the advantage of helping distinguish the “I mean it” (imperative) and the play such as running off with the toy as a part of a game. One of my parent’s dogs was called Karri and they invented a diminutive Kaz (or sometimes Kazwaz) for play and non-urgent communication.